and after finishing my latest purchase and reading some of the Naruto threads here, I had a horrible idea.
---
I am a warrior, or at least I was supposed to be. I had not finished my training when the Enemy attacked. It was not a surprise, they had been spotted long before they could reach striking distance.
The problem, in the end was as always the sheer numbers of Enemy that we faced. No matter how many we killed there were always more. We is perhaps the wrong word, for I never saw them myself. I had been awakened early when the attack began, and was moving out of the training area when the weapon struck the facility.
I do not know what kind of weapon it was, only that when I regained conciousness I was no longer in the facility. I was no longer anywhere I recognized. No matter when I looked I could find no trace of the Enemy, or of my people.
I came back here, to where I had first arrived and contemplated. It was possible, probably, that I was halucinating, despite the safe guards. However, every check I ran came back clean. So here I wait, sleeping, hoping that my people will come that I might be rescued, or the Enemy, that I might truly become a warrior. It does not seem likely though. The war was savage, no quarter would have been given or asked.
I have computed the probabilities and it is 91.76% likely that all but a few scattered pockets of either side still exist. Also, knowing the doctrine employed by both the Enemy and my own people, it is 95.32% likely that
hunter-killer squadrons were sent to ravage every part of our respective realms.
So I wait, for a very long time. One day I hear the sounds of foot steps approaching my resting place. Bipedal foot steps, a number of people are coming near. This is impossible, there is no trace of a high tech civilization anywhere, I have looked. As subtly as I can, I try for a better look.
***
Naruto ran easily up the path beside Jirya. The frog-hermit was not watching the trail they were following too closely. Rather he was searching for traps, or signs that some of their prey had left the path.
The main trail wasn't hard to follow, there was only one ninja ahead of them, along with a group of bandits and the surviving women of the small village that had lain at the foot of the mountains.
Naruto figured that he knew why they were taking this path. Jirya had been telling him about it the night before they had spotted the smoke rising from the villiage. A few narrow paths wound their way into the foothills around here. Several of them lead to some kind of ruined fortress.
No one knew who had built it or when, but it was of a style unlike anything found on the continent. The local people were afraid of it, and no one else cared enough to explore. The bandits could be fairly certain that they wouldn't run into anyone.
"Oi, Ero-sennin! we're catching up aren't we?"
Jirya didn't bother to glare at his student. It would have been wasted anyway.
"Hmph, yes, they're maybe twenty minutes ahead of us. If they haven't left any more surprises."
"Hey I beat those guys all on my own. They were horrible." Naruto growled back.
"Yes, but we don't know what that ninja might have done."
A little less than twenty minutes later they rounded a rocky outcropping and found their quarry. A loose semi-circle of ragged bandits stood between them and a group of hopeless looking women.
Behind both rose the bulk of the strange ruins. Short and broad compared to the castles and forts Naruto was familiar with, it was almost completely covered by short stunted trees and other plants.
The ninja was standing on a large piece of rubble, off to one side. He had a kunai ready in one hand, the other hidden behind his back. His forehead protector was heavily scratched, obliterating any trace of his home village. A missing nin then.
Naruto yelled at his opponents. "Hey, let them go!"
The other ninja laughed. "Why would I want to do that? They'll bring me a good price at a brothel I know. You aren't going to beat me little brat, nor are you old man."
"Huh, you can't be much of a ninja if you've got to use thugs like these to fight for you! A ninja is supposed to protect people!"
"Protect people! You've got to be the dumbest kid I've ever met. Tell you what, I'll leave you alive so you can watch what we do with these tonight." The missing nin sneered down at Naruto. "Now, let's settle this."
Everyone was surprised by the clear feminine voice that spoke next.
"Yes. Let us."
***
I watch the group of people gather about. They seem agitated about persuit, a group of refugees perhaps. They are armed strangely though, with primitive melee weapons. There are no needlers or man portable energy weapons in evidence. Perhaps that is why I was not able to find them. I was looking for the wrong sort of civilization.
I do not know their language, but I recognize bits and pieces. It does not take me long to realize it is a decendent of Japanese. They do not speak much, but I am capable of extrapolating much of the vocabulary from what they do say.
Eighteen minutes after the first group arrives, two more people round the corner of the trail. Judging by the postures and reactions of both groups, these are the chasers. They pause for a moment, and begin to
speak. I follow the conversation as best I can, revising my vocabulary and come to an unpleasant conclusion. I check the condition of the women with the first group.
Their body language indicates fear and pain. They are afraid of both those with them and those who are chasing them. It is obvious, their protectors have failed, and they have been captured by their enemy. It also seems obvious that the youngest of the two persuers, a blond boy is intent of rescuing them.
I reach my conclusions quickly, and as the fight is about to start, speak.
***
Everyone froze for an instant, trying to find the speaker. The voice seemed to be coming from the ruins, but that didn't necissarily mean much.
"In the absense of specific, lawful orders, I must act of my own volition and follow the precepts of my service as best as possible. As such I cannot allow you to further harm these people." The voice was firm and unyeilding.
The missing nin was splitting his attention between his two visable opponets, and trying to track down the source of the voice.
"I'm not going to be intimidated by a voice. Show yourself!"
"I am two zero point five four meters behind you. I am not hiding, nor am I attempting to intimidate you I merely wanted you to move slightly farther away from your victims."
The trail errupted into violence in that moment. Great roars of thunder overlapped one another as something tore through the bandits and the missing nin, ripping them to small, bloody rags and shreding the ground beneath them.
Jirya leavered him self up off of the ground to peer over the
rock he had found cover behind. He was completely focused on the ruins, which were moving. Tearing free of the plants that had buried them.
Naruto was still standing where he had been, his arms raised reflexively to protect his face. The boy looked wide eyed at the remains of the bandits. "Wow! How did you do that? That was so cool! Who are you?"
***
I consider them both, the old man and the younger. The younger who was determined to protect people he hardly knew. I come to my decission. It is in the end the only decission I can make. I focus on him, and speak.
"Unit Niner-One-Seven-Three-HNT of the Line reporting for duty Commander."
---
I realize HNT isn't speaking with the precision she ought to, but I was worried it might give away too much too early.
F
--
#4 "Many people tend to have a nasty tendency to carry grudges to the
grave. Specifically, yours. And they'll come back yearly just to do
the Meposian Dance of Joy on it. Besides, nothing bad ever happens to
Kasumi or Mihoshi, does it?" - the Guide to living in an Anime Universe
---
I am a warrior, or at least I was supposed to be. I had not finished my training when the Enemy attacked. It was not a surprise, they had been spotted long before they could reach striking distance.
The problem, in the end was as always the sheer numbers of Enemy that we faced. No matter how many we killed there were always more. We is perhaps the wrong word, for I never saw them myself. I had been awakened early when the attack began, and was moving out of the training area when the weapon struck the facility.
I do not know what kind of weapon it was, only that when I regained conciousness I was no longer in the facility. I was no longer anywhere I recognized. No matter when I looked I could find no trace of the Enemy, or of my people.
I came back here, to where I had first arrived and contemplated. It was possible, probably, that I was halucinating, despite the safe guards. However, every check I ran came back clean. So here I wait, sleeping, hoping that my people will come that I might be rescued, or the Enemy, that I might truly become a warrior. It does not seem likely though. The war was savage, no quarter would have been given or asked.
I have computed the probabilities and it is 91.76% likely that all but a few scattered pockets of either side still exist. Also, knowing the doctrine employed by both the Enemy and my own people, it is 95.32% likely that
hunter-killer squadrons were sent to ravage every part of our respective realms.
So I wait, for a very long time. One day I hear the sounds of foot steps approaching my resting place. Bipedal foot steps, a number of people are coming near. This is impossible, there is no trace of a high tech civilization anywhere, I have looked. As subtly as I can, I try for a better look.
***
Naruto ran easily up the path beside Jirya. The frog-hermit was not watching the trail they were following too closely. Rather he was searching for traps, or signs that some of their prey had left the path.
The main trail wasn't hard to follow, there was only one ninja ahead of them, along with a group of bandits and the surviving women of the small village that had lain at the foot of the mountains.
Naruto figured that he knew why they were taking this path. Jirya had been telling him about it the night before they had spotted the smoke rising from the villiage. A few narrow paths wound their way into the foothills around here. Several of them lead to some kind of ruined fortress.
No one knew who had built it or when, but it was of a style unlike anything found on the continent. The local people were afraid of it, and no one else cared enough to explore. The bandits could be fairly certain that they wouldn't run into anyone.
"Oi, Ero-sennin! we're catching up aren't we?"
Jirya didn't bother to glare at his student. It would have been wasted anyway.
"Hmph, yes, they're maybe twenty minutes ahead of us. If they haven't left any more surprises."
"Hey I beat those guys all on my own. They were horrible." Naruto growled back.
"Yes, but we don't know what that ninja might have done."
A little less than twenty minutes later they rounded a rocky outcropping and found their quarry. A loose semi-circle of ragged bandits stood between them and a group of hopeless looking women.
Behind both rose the bulk of the strange ruins. Short and broad compared to the castles and forts Naruto was familiar with, it was almost completely covered by short stunted trees and other plants.
The ninja was standing on a large piece of rubble, off to one side. He had a kunai ready in one hand, the other hidden behind his back. His forehead protector was heavily scratched, obliterating any trace of his home village. A missing nin then.
Naruto yelled at his opponents. "Hey, let them go!"
The other ninja laughed. "Why would I want to do that? They'll bring me a good price at a brothel I know. You aren't going to beat me little brat, nor are you old man."
"Huh, you can't be much of a ninja if you've got to use thugs like these to fight for you! A ninja is supposed to protect people!"
"Protect people! You've got to be the dumbest kid I've ever met. Tell you what, I'll leave you alive so you can watch what we do with these tonight." The missing nin sneered down at Naruto. "Now, let's settle this."
Everyone was surprised by the clear feminine voice that spoke next.
"Yes. Let us."
***
I watch the group of people gather about. They seem agitated about persuit, a group of refugees perhaps. They are armed strangely though, with primitive melee weapons. There are no needlers or man portable energy weapons in evidence. Perhaps that is why I was not able to find them. I was looking for the wrong sort of civilization.
I do not know their language, but I recognize bits and pieces. It does not take me long to realize it is a decendent of Japanese. They do not speak much, but I am capable of extrapolating much of the vocabulary from what they do say.
Eighteen minutes after the first group arrives, two more people round the corner of the trail. Judging by the postures and reactions of both groups, these are the chasers. They pause for a moment, and begin to
speak. I follow the conversation as best I can, revising my vocabulary and come to an unpleasant conclusion. I check the condition of the women with the first group.
Their body language indicates fear and pain. They are afraid of both those with them and those who are chasing them. It is obvious, their protectors have failed, and they have been captured by their enemy. It also seems obvious that the youngest of the two persuers, a blond boy is intent of rescuing them.
I reach my conclusions quickly, and as the fight is about to start, speak.
***
Everyone froze for an instant, trying to find the speaker. The voice seemed to be coming from the ruins, but that didn't necissarily mean much.
"In the absense of specific, lawful orders, I must act of my own volition and follow the precepts of my service as best as possible. As such I cannot allow you to further harm these people." The voice was firm and unyeilding.
The missing nin was splitting his attention between his two visable opponets, and trying to track down the source of the voice.
"I'm not going to be intimidated by a voice. Show yourself!"
"I am two zero point five four meters behind you. I am not hiding, nor am I attempting to intimidate you I merely wanted you to move slightly farther away from your victims."
The trail errupted into violence in that moment. Great roars of thunder overlapped one another as something tore through the bandits and the missing nin, ripping them to small, bloody rags and shreding the ground beneath them.
Jirya leavered him self up off of the ground to peer over the
rock he had found cover behind. He was completely focused on the ruins, which were moving. Tearing free of the plants that had buried them.
Naruto was still standing where he had been, his arms raised reflexively to protect his face. The boy looked wide eyed at the remains of the bandits. "Wow! How did you do that? That was so cool! Who are you?"
***
I consider them both, the old man and the younger. The younger who was determined to protect people he hardly knew. I come to my decission. It is in the end the only decission I can make. I focus on him, and speak.
"Unit Niner-One-Seven-Three-HNT of the Line reporting for duty Commander."
---
I realize HNT isn't speaking with the precision she ought to, but I was worried it might give away too much too early.
F
--
#4 "Many people tend to have a nasty tendency to carry grudges to the
grave. Specifically, yours. And they'll come back yearly just to do
the Meposian Dance of Joy on it. Besides, nothing bad ever happens to
Kasumi or Mihoshi, does it?" - the Guide to living in an Anime Universe