章節 6: 2/2
"Maybe he can't find us." Chouji volunteered. "We're in a big city, after all, and we ran a long way. Even the Byakugan might not be able to tell."
Sighing, Sakura shook her head. She hated to crush the boy's hopes, but she knew they had to look at it realistically. "We're in a city of people without chakra. Like he said himself, we'd stand out like a bright light. If he was able to, he'd have found us by now."
The words and their implications hung heavy in the air. Chouji swallowed and bent his head. Lee sunk to his knees and braced himself against the wall. Sakura simply closed her eyes.
A ninja must not show his emotions in any situation. A ninja must prioritize his mission first and not show any tears.
Of all the rules in the ninja world, Sakura had always had the most difficult time with that one. Perhaps because she was a woman, perhaps because she'd always been tender-hearted, perhaps simply because she'd never gone through a real war. But they had no time to grieve for Neji. As long as they were in unknown territory, pursued by a presumably hostile force, they needed to keep moving. The room they'd broken into would hold them for the night, but not much longer. They needed to keep it together. For the first time she truly understood the reasons behind that rule.
She understood now why you did it, but she still didn't know how. And a small part of her wondered how many comrades you had to lose before you DID learn.
"We should rest." She managed. "Conserve our chakra. No telling when that man will be back."
"If he was coming, it seems like he should have caught up by now." Chouji suggested. "He probably lost us. I mean, he doesn't have the Byakugan, right?"
"He found us before."
Chouji frowned. "Yeah, that's true. Maybe we'd better set up some kind of watch?"
"Good idea." Sakura nodded brokenly.
"Guess that's me then." Chouji sighed, standing to his feet. "Well, it's not like either of you can." He said, in response to the stares. "Lee, you're injured all over, and Sakura… you've not only been healing, you've been punching holes in buildings. I've got the least injuries, and I can replenish just by eating." He glanced down at the bag of chips he'd found. "Which doesn't appear to be a problem."
Too tired and distraught to argue, Sakura yielded to Chouji's advice. Kneeling, she dusted off a portion of the floor and lay down on the concrete. From her prone position, she watched the chubby boy help Lee to his feet and then seat himself in the doorway, nonchalantly munching on chips. A part of her wondered how the Akimichi could stay so calm, but another part of her simply thanked Kami that he was.
Suddenly, something nudged her in the side, and she glanced up to see an apologetic Lee, carrying a huge piece of cardboard. "It will be softer." He insisted. "And cleaner. Please accept it, Sakura-san."
Sakura managed a slight smile. "Thanks, Lee." She half-sat up, accepting the cardboard and spreading it on the ground. As she shifted over onto it, she glanced at him and frowned. "Don't you have one? There must be lots out there."
"Yosh!" The exclamation had little of its former enthusiasm, but somehow still sparked the gleam in Lee's eye. "Sleeping on the ground hardens the muscles and strengthens the skin. I shall sleep for four hours on the ground, and if I cannot do that..."
Only Lee could turn sleeping into a training exercise, she reflected wearily. "It's okay, Lee. I get it. Thanks."
"You're welcome, Sakura-san." He started to move away, then, hesitating, spoke again. "Are you… feeling well, Sakura-san?"
Inwardly, Sakura groaned. Lee's devotion to her could be sweet at times, but at the moment it was simply annoying. "No, Lee. I'm not. We're stuck in a strange city, away from all our friends, being pursued by some mystery ninja who's already killed or captured Neji." She snapped. "I'm not feeling well at all, but there's not much I can do about it right now except get some sleep. So would you please let me rest now?"
She regretted the words almost immediately. Neji had not only been Lee's teammate, he'd been his "eternal rival." The spandex-clad chunin had lost more than anyone in the group, the last thing he needed was a taste of her irritation.
But to her surprise, Lee did not look hurt at all, merely serious. "I understand, Sakura-san. I too am not feeling well." He replied earnestly. "But do not worry. I shall protect you from whatever dangers we encounter, or I shall run nine thousand laps around this city!" For a second his eyes hardened. "And then I shall kill the one who harmed you."
Sakura stared at him for a moment. "And… if you can't do that?" There was always another side to Lee's self-imposed punishments.
"Then I shall die trying." Lee replied, deadly serious.
For a long time Sakura simply looked at him, studying his face, as if searching for a hidden meaning to his words. Finally she turned over. "You'd better get to sleep, Lee." She said. Lee gave a little nod and turned to leave. "And Lee?"
He paused.
"Thanks."
"Sasuke-sama! Look out!" Juugo leapt aside as a red-and-green clad figure shot down from the roof. He recognized him—the nin-leader from before.
As the fight had gone on, Juugo had been feeling worse and worse about it. Granted, he hadn't liked it to begin with—the inhabitants of the building hadn't exactly done anything to them—but he'd become used to things like that long ago.
But now his unease stemmed from an entirely different cause. He was no longer sure they could match these fighters. The fighter who'd attacked him initially—the blue armored one—had been a formidable warrior, much like Juugo in his incredible strength and ability to shoot pure chakra. Fortunately that warrior had quickly gone after Sasuke, and Juugo'd had to deal with some odd green creature instead. He hadn't expected him to put up much of a fight, but the creature had the disturbing ability to shift his very form. Juugo'd wasted a lot of time trying to figure out if it was a genjutsu, and after he'd decided it wasn't, he'd spent even more time trying to predict the creature's incredibly varied attacks. He hadn't really been in danger, but if Sasuke-sama hadn't used his black flames on the creature and the blue warrior (and Juugo, incidentally), it would have taken significantly longer to defeat him
But now the other two were back, and Juugo was feeling even worse, because if they were back, that meant Suigetsu was down, and THAT meant these two were powerful. He wasn't sure, but he thought the orange girl could even fly.
At the moment, that wasn't important, however. At the moment, what was important was that the green and red one was charging toward Sasuke-sama, something that could not be allowed. Roaring, Juugo ran at the insolent nin.
He had hardly set one foot in front of the other, however, when a sudden blur punched all the air out of him. By the time he realized he'd been struck, he was already smashing into the back wall, an orange and powerful girl shooting towards him. He barely managed to get his arms up before she plowed into his midsection, driving him through the wall and out the other side of the tower.
Distantly, Juugo noted that his observation about the girl was completely accurate. She COULD fly. They were nearly fifty feet above the water right now, and Juugo couldn't exactly fly. But he could do the next best thing.
Juugo's back erupted into rockets of pure chakra, propelling them toward the water as he latched hold of the girl. Sensing the sudden change in momentum, she struggled wildly against his arms, but Juugo retained his grip. Though the girl was surprisingly strong, he was stronger.
Then, moments before impact, her eyes lit up with a strange green light.
Juugo saw the flash before he felt the pain, and felt the pain before he noticed he'd been blown backward, away from the girl. But the second he'd seen the eyes, his feeling about the battle had suddenly gotten worse. Where the girl had gotten the ability to shoot chakra from her fingertips, Juugo didn't pretend to understand.
He focused his chakra as he hit the water, and went skimming over the surface, finally sliding to a stop some feet away. He stood up as the strange orange girl flew to a stop some twenty feet away from him.
For a while they just stood there, Juugo standing still on the water, the orange girl floating just above it, hands glowing.
"Forgive me." The girl spoke at last. "I do not wish to give you pain, but I cannot allow you to harm my friends."
Juugo closed his eyes as he felt the old familiar pang. Allowing himself one last feeling of regret, he triggered the transformation. "Neither…" he said as his dark curse seal engulfed him, "…can I."
"So your power is some kind of an intangible mystic force that will die along with you and depends on your enthusiasm or 'willingness' for a certain task. It's not something you completely understand, but you say your ability to summon it depends largely on your own health and well-being in your 'un-powered' state. Also you say you don't know how I can replicate or control this power."
"Like I said, I don't completely understand it myself." Naruto tried a grin. This was significantly harder than he had thought. The man asked a LOT of questions, and not all of them were the kind Naruto understood. "But I'm pretty sure you can't find it by cutting into me or drawing insane amounts of blood or anything like that."
"Oh? And how did you discover that?"
"Uh…" Naruto thought. "I've had a lot of swords cut into me."
"I thought you said that that sort of thing affected your ability to summon it."
"Oh it does! It does! But… uh…" Naruto tried for some more fast thinking. "In fact, that's why it's so difficult for me to summon it currently! I've been hurt so many times while I'm like this," he gestured at the cuffs, "that it's gotten really really hard for me to call on it. I need like a fifteen-minute wait before I can summon it these days."
"I see." The man nodded. "Now… as to your friends… do they have comparable powers?"
Naruto thought this through carefully. There were many reasons why a man like this might want a jinchuuriki, none of them very nice or pleasant. But on the other hand, this man had said earlier that the only reason he had kept Naruto and his friends alive was because of his power. Hence, if he knew the others weren't jinchuurikis, he might just kill them.
"I don't know about comparable." He said, very carefully. "Different, certainly. They're all very strong, in their own way. But I don't know how their powers work. You'd have to ask them."
"I see. Thank you very much." The man gestured, and the glass pane suddenly shifted to opaque white.
Naruto let out a sigh of relief, but did not dare to do much more. The man might still be watching, after all. Hopefully that information would keep him busy for a while, but Naruto couldn't be sure. And what if one of his friends unwittingly gave the whole thing away? Trapped like this, none of them would be able to fight back, they could only lie still.
Lie still…
A slow grin spread across Naruto's face, and he closed his eyes, reaching out with his mind to sense the natural chakra surrounding him…
The fight between them was silent, efficient, and utterly ruthless. Blazing sword clashed against cold white staff, kunai flew past batarangs, and feet shot back and forth in a frenzied dance of death.
Robin was utterly in his element. Rarely did he get to experience such a match-up of pure martial ability. No meta powers, no robotic suits, just speed, skill, and strength. Oh, the man had a few extra powers—breathing fire and some sort of lightning fist that Robin'd easily avoided—but for the most part the red-eyed man had relied lightning-fast reflexes and some very unique moves. Exactly the sort of opponent Robin loved to fight. And his silence suited Robin just fine—normally enemies wasted all sorts of time trying to taunt him into making mistakes.
At the same time, though, it disturbed him. Taunting indicated arrogance, which could often be exploited into underestimation. This man was taking him seriously, and as gratifying as that was, it removed a valuable weapon from Robin's arsenal. Which, when their talents matched so exactly, could make all the difference.
Robin flipped out of the way of the swiping blade and tossed smoke pellets at the teen, who was forced to deflect them with his sword. Using this momentary distraction, Robin dashed forward, shifting his bo staff into a fighting position. Quicker than he would have thought possible, though, the other's sword whipped back up to meet him. The two met, rebounded, attacked, and blocked in rapid succession, a flurry of attacks that few could follow.
One other thing that vaguely worried Robin—and irritated him somewhat—was that he felt this guy wasn't fighting at his full potential. Some very un-Cyborg-like wounds were in evidence, and Robin'd noticed some bad burn marks and blood stains on the man's clothing. He seemed a little winded, too, if that was possible for someone so fast. Yet he kept up with Robin exactly. And if this guy HAD beaten Cyborg, he probably had some other tricks that he hadn't used yet.
Ducking under the man's sword, Robin kicked at the man's legs, only for them to leap out of range. He glanced up to see the man's fingers moving rapidly, and rolled left just in time to avoid a flurry of fireballs that came spurting from the teens mouth. Leaping out of the last roll, he threw a series of pellets at the man.
As expected, the teenager moved to deflect them with his sword. And, as expected, when he tried to deflect the explosive pellets, they burst apart and sent him flying back towards the wall. Robin grinned but knew he could waste no time. Dashing forward, he raised his staff in what he intended to be a crushing blow.
The teen's head popped out of the rubble and glared directly at him. For a second his eyes flashed and something in them seemed to shift.
Robin hadn't lived as long as he had as a crimefighter without learning one important fact: When the villain's eyes did something funny like that, you got the heck out of the way. So, without breaking stride, he pushed off on his foremost foot and leapt into the air.
Exactly one second later, he was heartily grateful for that, as the entire back of the Tower burst into flames—black flames, he couldn't help noticing. Robin didn't pretend to understand how THAT had happened, but there it was. And fast as he was, he couldn't pretend to be faster than eyesight. His entire leg was burning.
Clenching his teeth tight against the pain, Robin tumbled to the ground, ripping off his boot. It didn't solve the whole problem, but his foot at least was whole again. His leg though... He grabbed a extinguisher pellet and smashed it into his leg, only to stare in disbelief as the flames burned right through it.
This isn't working. Need to come up with something new. Perhaps…
A shrill scream broke his thoughts, and he whipped around to gaze out at the lake. The grey-skinned monster standing on the water was wholly unfamiliar, but there was no mistaking the broken orange body in his arms.
"Star!" He cried, struggling forward. In that same instant, he heard the step of someone behind him and realized he was done for.
Crushing blackness struck the back of his head and swallowed him up.
"Japanese, you say?" Mr. Terrific eyed Batman curiously.
"A variation of it perhaps, but close enough." Batman nodded irritably. "What's the problem?"
"Well… none of them look exactly Asian… Granted, they're from another dimension, but it seems that if the language was the same, the characteristics would be roughly similar also."
Flash spoke up. "Maybe it's an alternate universe where Japan rules the world?"
"Possible." The scientist mused.
"Bats, do you ever even CONSIDER the diplomatic approach?" Superman rubbed his eyes. "You meet these kids, fresh from another dimension, and the first thing you do is attack them?"
Glaring, Batman responded, "THEY'RE the intruders here. Not us. I don't need to justify being in my own dimension, but anybody who's crossed over from one to the other had better be able to prove their intentions are peaceful." He gestured at the teenager he'd brought in. "By the time I got there, they were up, ready, and prepared to attack. I wasn't about to let them get loose."
"They did anyway. Anyway, it's possible they came here by accident, right?"
Mr. Terrific shrugged. "That sort of stuff is speculative until they wake up and we can question them more directly." Mr. Terrific, in addition to being J'onn's replacement as League Coordinator, was widely regarded as the third-smartest man alive. The League had no one better suited to investigate the scientific aspect of their visitors. "J'onn said he didn't find any memory of it in their mind, but that could easily be due to the effect of the dimensional warp. It's hard to know for sure, unless you want him to go digging around for more specific information."
"Best to wait on that until we know more about their physiology." Superman shook his head decisively. "We're not sure what we're dealing with here, we should handle them as carefully as possible." He threw a glance over at the Martian. "J'onn only did that to help the medics."
Arrow snorted but the others ignored him. "What did you learn from your analysis?" Batman asked.
"Well... anatomically, they're essentially human, though the third boy's eyes have some abnormalities I'd like to examine further, and the second boy—Shino—has several odd… compartments in his body where he kept the bugs." Mr. Terrific paused a moment. "Based on my and J'onn's info, I would guess that he has a symbiotic relationship with the insects. Separating them could be dangerous for the boy."
"Letting him keep them might be dangerous for us." Hawkgirl pointed out.
"Leave them in." Superman's voice cut off any further argument. "We can't risk a death on our hands, not until we know more. Put him in a space suit or something if you're really worried."
Mr. Terrific nodded agreement and continued. "As I said, they're mostly human. In fact, several of the cellular anomalies we observed in the… arm… could not be found in their cells."
"Like the mouth in the hand?"
"That was one of them, yes." Replied the man evenly, ignoring Flash's grin. "There were several others, but I won't go into them now. What's important is the one similarity. I have a theory about what those nano-mitochondriac structures are for."
Batman nodded, apparently satisfied, but the rest of the leaguers looked blank. "Huh?" said Flash.
"When we were examining the arm, there were some elements in the cells that we didn't understand," explained the scientist. "I found some similar elements in the cells we took from the patients…" Green Arrow snorted again "…and saw what they do."
"And?"
"Well... I still can't quite tell... but they're giving off a faint radioactive signature."
"What?"
"Faint, mind you. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems their body is generating some kind of energy-not necessarily atomic, but related. If I'm right, it might explain the large amount ATP energy present in their cells." He frowned. "And there's something else in there too. Perhaps some kind of psychic energy-but you say you didn't sense anything like that, J'onn."
"I wasn't particularly looking for it." The martian shrugged.
Batman interrupted. "Can you suppress it?"
Mr. Terrific frowned. "That seems dangerous. Given its apparent ties to the body's energy system, I'm not sure I could suppress the one without damaging the other. I'm not sure that that's a risk we want to take."
"Listen to the man." Green Arrow nodded. "These are kids, for crying out loud. Let's try not to kill them while we're busy keeping them imprisoned."
"I fought these 'kids.' You didn't." Batman gritted his teeth. "Don't try and tell me they're harmless."
J'onn cleared his throat, breaking the tension. "There is one other matter of interest." He stated. "My examination of Batman's prisoner revealed that he was another participant in the battle I witnessed in the second boy's mind."
All eyes were instantly on the Martian. "He's the fugitive?"
"No. He was another member of the team pursuing the fugitive—a sizeable team, from what I could gather."
"How sizeable?" Superman furrowed his brow in thought.
J'onn winced. "The boy had a curiously wide range of vision. I can't be positive, but it seems there was a team of thirteen."
"THIRTEEN?"
"The boy had some kind of mental barrier." J'onn reminded them. "I could be wrong. But my best guess runs at twelve children and one adult. What their abilities were, I cannot say, but I think it safe to say they're on a par with our prisoners here."
"And this fugitive character brought them all down." Hawkgirl shook her head. "If he IS here, this could be a problem."
"Indeed." J'onn nodded. "Because if what I saw is accurate, the fugitive had a team of his own with him. At least three others."
There was a moment of silence as the Leaguers digested this information. Then Batman turned to Mr. Terrific. "You're sure you had people check all the rift sites?"
"I'm sure," came the response. "The second your call came in, we teleported league members to each location. We sent Green Lantern to Jump City, told Superman about Metropolis, called in Hawkgirl for the spot in the Rockies, and teleported Green Arrow to Hub City. We didn't send anyone to Gotham, but…" he gestured at the patients. "It looks like you took care of that pretty well."
Batman frowned. "Why'd you send Green Arrow to Hub City?"
"Hey!" The archer glared at Batman.
"No, no." Batman shook his head impatiently. "I mean, isn't that Question's city? Why didn't you call him in on it?"
There were a few glances exchanged around the room. "Question wasn't available."
"He must be off on one of his conspiracy trails." Hawkgirl snorted. "Wouldn't want us 'tracing' him, I suppose. I hate to think of what he's doing right now."
"Dude, you're some kinda crazy!" Kiba screamed at the odd faceless man.
"Tell me what you know!" insisted his captor, shining the blinding light at the chunin's face. "You can't hide the truth from me! What is NASA doing with those shoelaces? And why are the Girl Scouts suddenly adding 'new organic ingredients' to their cookies? What do they have planned?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, you psycho!"
The man leaned back and stroked his chin. "You are stubborn. The Illuminati has trained you well."
Kiba sighed and shook his head in frustration. Sure, the man spoke Japanese, but even so he made no sense!
The sheer ridiculousness of the situation had a certain humor to it. In fact, if he wasn't chained to a chair in the middle of a squalid apartment somewhere in this bizarre city, the whole thing would be really pretty freaking funny. And, of course, if he didn't happen to be in the same room with psycho who asked crazy questions. Granted, the man hadn't pulled any serious tricks yet—in the interrogation business the guy seemed to be something of an amateur—so things could be worse. Mostly all he'd done was shine a light in his face and make vague threats.
The man was back. "Tell me, what do you know about paper clips? Who is the true 'Knight Rider?' The broccoli farmers in the South… what are they planning? Your masters can't protect you here! Tell me who you are, where you come from, what you do!"
"I come from Konoha, my name is Kiba, I'm a chunin-level ninja who rides a giant dog, and you're a psycho!"
The man snorted and drew back. "Too easy! Think you can put me off with lies like that? You don't look like any ordinary ninja to me. That story of yours is good, but far too simple. There's more you're hiding, I'm sure, and I won't rest until I get it!"
"Dude…" Kiba groaned, fighting back a headache. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night.
"In any case," Batman concluded, "Question was the one who discovered this dimensional abnormality, so he should be apprised of the facts. He may actually know something useful."
Hawkgirl shook her head. "I doubt it."
"I do too, but Batman's right." Superman said, standing to his feet. "Question's better at drawing connections between things than anyone. And if there's a possibility that this fugitive is running loose in Hub City, we ought to pull out all the stops. As soon as you can, get in touch with him."
"We should focus on the other areas too." Hawkgirl nodded. "I might have missed something in the Rockies… We could get some other fliers to look it over."
"Since we know there are three in Gotham already, we could maybe send…"
Superman's voice trailed off at Batman's glare. "My city."
"Fine." Superman sighed. "We'll leave that to you and your family. That means we contact Question in Hub City, send others over the Rocky Mountains, maybe send a few more parties around Metropolis, and…" He frowned a moment. "Do we have any allies in Jump City?"
"You kidding?" Flash frowned. "How could you forget the Titans? Just drop them a message and they'll be all over it."
Juugo laid the orange girl and Suigetsu down to the floor. "That's the last of them, Sasuke-sama."
"Good." Sasuke nodded.
"I got dibs on the red and green one." snarled Suigetsu. "Little bastard hit me from the rear with some kinda ice attack… I swear, give me five seconds with him and he'll…"
"You're not doing anything to any of them right now. We need information about this world and these captives are our most ready source." Sasuke shifted around to glare at Suigetsu. "Though in the future, you will ensure that they do not take you so easily. If we imprison them properly, we should have no difficulty keeping track of them."
Juugo breathed a sigh of relief while Suigetsu seethed.
"Now." Sasuke turned back to face the window. "We will secure this building and begin preparations. I must learn how to master the jutsu my sensei employed, but we must also make this building defensible, in case any of the others come after us."
Suigetsu quirked an eyebrow. "Others?"
"The Leaf nins."
"You think they're here too?" Juugo asked.
"Hn." Sasuke shrugged. "It's very possible. As I said, I'm not certain how the jutsu works, but since Kakashi sent the Hyuuga with us, I'd guess he might have trouble controlling it."
"It might have been an accident. She was right by us in the forest."
"So was Naruto." The others fell silent at that remark. "We must be as careful as we can not to attract attention. It seems the inhabitants of this world are more dangerous than I had assumed. If any more of them discover us we may need to relocate."
"Drat." The reporter muttered as she pulled her car to a stop. "Get out of bed at this late hour, drive all the way down here, and it's already over. Can't those Titans choose to have their battles in the daytime? Or at least make them last longer?" She sighed. "Suppose I might as well get up and take a look around."
She popped open the door and stepped out, high heels clicking against the pavement. Grunting, she hefted a camera and began clicking. "Don't suppose I'll even get a statement from them saying what the heck happened." She muttered. "What on earth was White thinking, sending me out to a dump like this when I could be…"
Something in the corner of her viewfinder caught her eye. "What the…" She put down the camera and hurried forward toward a limp form on the end of the dock. "Oh my word."
Quickly she whipped out a cell phone and began dialing. "Hello? Yes, this is Lois Lane, I've found a girl down by the docks. She seems to be badly injured."
to be continued...
A/N: Reviews are wonderful things. Have I ever mentioned that? Reviews are pretty awesome. I mean, I like faves and alerts, but reviews actually give me something tangible to work off of. So REVIEW!
I have a minor point to clear up. Chakra is NOT going to turn out to be some kind of nuclear power. Mr. Terrific simply doesn't quite understand what he's seeing. I have a plan thought up for how chakra works, and though it does partially work at a nuclear level, it's not a simple reactor-like process. If you want to get an idea, check out "Humane Studies." It has a rather fascinating explanation of chakra that I'll be working off of.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票