In a pattern that was getting uncomfortably common, I didn’t remember getting into bed before falling asleep. My girls obviously carried me there because when I opened my eyes I was staring at the captain’s room ceiling again.
Stretching a bit I sighed and sat up only to notice that I was also once again alone. Well, that and they had actually changed my clothes to something cleaner. I had also probably slept way longer than I would have liked.
To my mild relief I noticed that the bed around me had been rumpled and I was pretty sure I could identify Amy’s shirt laying across the chair in the corner. So the others had come into the bedroom to sleep at some point which did make me feel a little less like a burden.
Biting my lip and closing my eyes I focused on the realities around us for a few seconds before I slumped back into my pillow. We still had two more jumps after this one. However on that third jump we should be back in HP and could check in on Holly and Lara, rest a little bit, and then really start figuring out what we were going to do.
It was the question of what to do that was beginning to weigh on me. Because while I wanted to just explore, I also wanted to continue to learn magic, I wanted weapons, I wanted defenses, I wanted a better home, and… yeah… even if I was being more careful about it, I kinda still wanted to find more women to join us even if I was really starting to focus on finding those that actually wanted to be here. Case in point, Sarah’s standoff-ish attitude and annoyance talking to any of us was starting to wear on me as time went on..
The thing was, a lot of those items and abilities were back in the HP world, but a lot of others weren’t. There was also the danger issue because, while I wanted to explore, the inability to immediately jump away upon finding realities like Dr. Who had made this trip a lot more stressful than it already was.
Taking a deep breath I tried to organize my thoughts. So… while I wanted to get back to HP, this was more or less exactly the type of world I wanted to visit and get empowered by. I mean, it was a world full of actual ninjas… even if it was one that seemed strangely unconcerned with stealth. I just wish I knew the story better because we might be able to get some real interesting powers and items here if I knew it as well as I did Harry Potter.
Still, even if I couldn’t get the chakra weapons and special scrolls, it was the physical abilities of the ninja here that I really wanted even if it delayed us slightly. Plus, with how hard I had pushed myself to get out of Dr. Who, we were going to have some time.
Well, not only that, but pushing ourselves here to become truly superhuman would exponentially increase our threat rating to any other dangers we might find. So, taking a deep breath I swung my legs out of the bed and got up.
When I left my captain’s cabin, I was once again greeted with the sight of my Family hanging out around the common area of the shuttle. I noted that I immediately felt better seeing everyone moderately happy and healthy after such a dangerous jump.
Spotting an empty spot on the sofa, I smiled and walked over and sat down before I leaned back and looked at my girls. All of which had turned when they heard the door swish open because while power doors were still very cool, they weren’t exactly quiet or sneaky.
“So, I am glad everyone is doing well, but I have to ask, how long was I out?”
Thea answered immediately. “You were out for 22 hours, 32 minutes, and 24 seconds.”
I blinked in surprise as I processed that. “Well, I don’t think I have ever slept for a full day before, but I am feeling quite a bit better.”
I paused to try to quantify how I was feeling, even opening a small portal in front of me as a test but after a few seconds I ended up just shrugging. “That last jump was hard, but I don’t think I did anything more than strain myself a bit so we might be able to move on as quickly as 5 days from now, maybe 3 in a pinch.”
Luna looked towards the ramp with a small smile. “Minor world saving and training time?”
Looking at her, I tilted my head in confusion before I considered it. We weren’t exactly going to try to solve the entire world’s problems in less than a week so training while we tried to nudge the world to be a little bit better was probably a good idea. “Yeah, as long as we can keep our heads down overall, learning this world’s abilities could be incredibly useful, I was hoping we could figure some things out while we were here…”
Sabah, who had seen the mountain through my sneak peek portal and apparently seen the anime, spoke up next. “Is it really a good idea to get involved with the Naruto world? You were complaining that Dr Who was dangerous, but I would have thought that the top tier ninja here in the elemental nations were on a similar level. Even with our abilities, I am pretty sure that someone like Kakashi could demolish us, let alone Orochimaru or Pain.”
I sighed. “You have a point, even with Amy’s body improvements, all of us are more or less glass cannons. Being two or three times faster than a standard peak-human won’t do much here. But if we are here for a while and if we want to stop being outclassed by the worlds we visit, we really need to find opportunities to grow.”
Taylor looked particularly interested at the idea of gaining more power, but her logical mind was already considering the problems. “Will this ninja magic system conflict with the HP one?”
I took a deep breath and considered that. Still thinking about it I hesitated and looked at Amy.
Amy looked a bit surprised when we all looked at her, but she still bit her lip and considered it seriously. “According to the story, the chakra pathways acted like a secondary nervous and circulatory system with the chakra being produced and stored inside the body. The HP magic system doesn’t have anything like that so my gut feeling is they wouldn’t conflict, but I would have to test it.”
As everyone thought through that explanation I mentally noted that Amy was obviously another one who had watched the anime. I could probably add Dinah to that list as well because she didn’t look overly confused by the discussion like Taylor did..
The fact that three of my girls had seen Naruto didn’t really surprise me as virtually all of my girls were somewhat reclusive teens in the early 2000s. If Naruto existed on Earth Bet, and apparently it had, then they would have been part of the target audience.
Honestly, it was more surprising that Taylor hadn’t seen Naruto than that the others had. Even Sarah, who didn’t seem like the type to watch anime, was looking like she was familiar with the setting. She must have been familiar with the story through cultural osmosis of being part-Asian if nothing else.
Getting back on track I considered the issue a bit more. “So, yeah, you are right. The HP system seems to be using magic… or mana… or whatever it is directly from the universe around us. Meanwhile chakra is produced and stored within the body.”
I tilted my head back and considered it for a bit longer. “Yeah, the HP magic is still channeled through the body, but doesn’t seem to be the same. Honestly it is a bit more like a mini ritual. I mean it needs some sort of magical wand, mental focus, desire, and some formalized wand movements to get an effect. It is apparently only when those skills are fully internalized can you skip some or all of those steps. Regardless, it clearly isn’t an internal reservoir. If it was, the Lovegoods, and Ahri for that matter, wouldn’t have had as much of an immediate issue on Earth Bet as they did.”
Amy interrupted me, and also confirmed that yes, she knew the story quite well. “What about nature chakra? That was something that the ninja here could absorb from the world around them and then use to get a massive boost.”
I blinked while processing her question. “I hadn’t actually thought about that…. you are right.”
Tapping my fingers across my knee I considered for a moment before I shrugged. “I am not sure about the differences there. Really, we haven’t spent nearly as much time as we should exploring what magic is and where it comes from. I mean, in some HP fan fictions, they sometimes describe a ‘magical core’, but in our HP reality… and apparently in the cannon universe, there isn’t anything like that. JK Rowling was pretty clear about the characters not having any internal magic reserves or any ‘magical core’.”
I sat back and tried to review anything else we actually knew, but there wasn't much. “So, ultimately… well… no…”
I sighed and finally shrugged. “I don’t know… I guess, we are going to have to go out there and learn.”
Dinah frowned at me and rolled her eyes before she started mumbling. Recognizing that Dinah was using her abilities we all waited as she narrowed down what she wanted to know. We were rewarded as a few moments later she answered our unasked questions. “92.6% chance of discovery if we leave the ship as we are now. 88.2% chance of successful integration of chakra systems if we copy the system from an active shinobi. 21.3% chance of war breaking out in the next week.”
Considering those numbers for a moment, I smacked my forehead and nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. In this world there are abilities that can see the chakra in people and chakra exists in literally everything in this world. If a Hyuga with their ‘all-seeing-eyes’ saw us without chakra I suspect it would raise all sorts of red flags.” Then I frowned. “And this world seems to constantly be on the brink of war so that percentage seems right.”
It was then that Hermione, who had obviously been suppressing her desire to ask questions, decided she couldn’t wait anymore. “OK, What world is this exactly and why is everyone worried about a war?”
I smiled and nodded looking between Hermione, Luna, Xeno, Ahri, Alice, Ahsoka, and Taylor who still looked half confused. “Right. This is the world of the elemental nations. The story primarily follows a good-hearted young boy named Naruto and the ninja world around him. Said young man is an orphan that has a chakra monster sealed inside him making him stronger, giving him a healing factor, and a nearly inexhaustible source of the chakra. Chakra is the super power source in this world that exists in everything.”
Taking a breath I saw the nods so I continued. “Because of that chakra beast he is considered a Jinchuriki, a living sacrifice, and people like him are feared. Worse, the normal people in the village hate him more than normal because the monster in him broke out from his mother when he was born and destroyed a large part of the city he lives in. There was some interference there, but we can discuss that more later. Short story is that it was a targeted attack to release it.”
I hesitated and decided to clarify. “Well, they call it a village, but when we saw it, it clearly had tens of thousands of people living inside it, so not really a village in the traditional sense.”
Taking a deep breath I shook my head and got back on track. “Anyway, the story follows Naruto as he learns to be a ninja and his dream of being the Hokage which is the leader of this village and is usually the strongest ninja in said village. However, because everyone hates him and the teachers didn’t really train him… and well because he honestly isn’t very book smart, he is virtually always coming from behind.”
I smiled thinking about the story. “That said, he makes up for it with an absolutely insane amount of hard work and guts… mostly guts.”
As I considered the world again, I frowned. “The thing is, this story follows the natural progression of a shonen anime where the stakes just keep getting bigger. In this case there is a literal goddess, Kaguya, using an evil illuminati group working to foster hostilities between the countries so she can manipulate another group of illuminati to collect all the chakra beasts together. The illuminati group’s name is Akatsuki and their stated goal is to mind control everyone to finally create world peace…”
I chuckled and sighed. “In reality, the goddess’ child is subverting them to break out his mother from her moon prison and she plans on killing everyone, I think.”
I paused and stared at the ceiling for a moment. “Perhaps to top off said craziness, I think it was hinted that chakra manipulation was initially taught hundreds of years ago by either a literal alien or a demigod as he is sometimes described as having fallen from the stars. They called him the sage of six paths and the god of shinobi, Hagoromo Otsusuki, and he apparently had the strength to back up those claims.”
There was silence for almost a minute as everyone sat back and considered that before Amy cursed. “Damn it!.” We all looked over before Amy sighed and explained herself. “I really wanted to save Neji, Asuma, and even Hiruzen. But we aren’t really strong enough to just go out and stop their killers, are we?”
I started to shake my head before I hesitated. “No… well… maybe.”
Everyone looked at me in either confusion or expectation and I shrugged. “It depends on when exactly we are in the timeline. Ninjas would probably not listen to our warnings if we just started telling people we know S-class secrets. In fact, it might be worse if they did. That would probably see us dragged back to the Torture and Interogation department. In fact, they would probably grab us even quicker than if we just showed up in the middle of their village without a chakra network. The former would look like a dramatic and severe security breach where the latter is just a medical anomaly.”
I chuckled tiredly. “Keep in mind that this is a complete military dictatorship filled with trained mercenary assassins most of which are fanatically loyal and we don’t have any form of legal documentation or history.”
I sighed and folded my arms across my chest. “So to help, while avoiding a trip to T&I, we will have to have chakra and we will have to find ways of slowly leaking the warnings to the right people while letting them think they discovered something themselves.”
Seeing a chorus of nodding heads I sat back up and opened up another small peephole into Konohagakure, the self-named village hidden in the leaves. Only seeing four figures on the mountains meant we were in the Naruto era of the timeline as opposed to the Shippuden, Boruto, or prequels eras. Yet that alone would have only narrowed it down to any time between the end of the third great ninja war which was before Naruto’s birth to the death of Hiruzen, when Tsunade was brought back to be the fifth Hokage. I wasn’t sure the exact dates for anything since the Naruto story was notoriously bad for creating exact timelines and ages. However, that would have given us a window of like 12-14 years.
I suppose it was lucky for us, that I had spotted Naruto as part of the famous team 7 flying by me when I first opened the portal. That meant we were sometime after their initial assignment to Kakashi. With that we could probably narrow the timeline down to less than a year. Yet that was a moderately busy year for the kids, ending with the invasion of two rival villages, Sound and Sand, during the finals of the Chunin exams.
I blinked and smiled. That right there was probably the best way to find out exactly how much time we had to work with. It was something with an exact date that the villagers would know about and be willing to tell me. Asking them how long since Naruto graduated would be a bad idea for a whole host of reasons. Yet if it was right around the corner then I really didn’t want to be walking around the village when trained assassins were fighting in the streets.
Keeping a verbal running commentary so my girls could follow my thoughts I started moving my primary portal towards the center of town. If we were going to find a ninja we could inspect to copy powers from, it was probably best to head towards the center of the village rather than near the border wall. Plus, finding ninjas that weren’t moving around would be easier if we looked in restaurants or coffee shops. We could just knock one unconscious and then scan them in place and should be a lot easier than following them home. Especially since I didn’t really want to find out how exactly high ranked ninja booby-trapped their homes.
Yet it was Sabah that immediately shot down that idea. “If the ninja are as paranoid as they are in the manga, they would notice someone suddenly falling asleep next to them and investigate. I am pretty sure we would need to find someone already asleep.”
I grimaced but nodded. “You are right, we aren’t being paranoid enough here. This was the village that produced Kakashi and the phrase looking ‘underneath the underneath’.” I hesitated for a moment and then continued. “Does anyone have any suggestions?”
After a few moments Taylor turned to look at Thea. “What is the smallest camera lens you have?”
A little confused by the topic change, Thea took a moment to answer. “The camera itself is only a few millimeters across but I don’t have a way of moving a camera that small and battery life and transmission speed will be limited.”
I smiled, seeing where this was going. “Yes, but I can open up tiny portals in front of the cameras while you pipe the feeds into the hologram here, or maybe just your primary screen. It also means that I don’t have to have my eye right up against the portal. I can control what goes through them, but I don’t really like having my pretty face so close to potential danger.”
There were a few rolled eyes at my sass, but Taylor nodded and then expanded the plan. “Yes, and then with that extra viewpoint you can open a portal right next to them directly.”
I turned to her impressed along with most of the other girls. “That is a much better plan. Good job Girls.”
A half an hour later we had both two views being shown on two large displays attached to Thea’s server rack along with a video stream being directly fed into the hologram display in the center of the table. Honestly, that was perhaps the most impressive thing about the setup. Getting two completely different electrical systems to play nicely with each other was often a massive pain in the ass. However she was an artificial intelligence with the computer manuals of said Star Wars tech and she obviously knew her own systems inside and out… literally. Using the fabricator on the bottom of her computer rack for a few extra connectors and we were good to go.
Turning away from that impressive level of technical knowhow, I focused on moving the portals around only to realize, well… I kinda sucked at it.
I could move them one at a time in a smooth and careful motion, but the moment I tried to do more than two at a time, they jerked around while I switched which one I was focusing on. I had moved a lot more than two at a time, but the constant adjustment needed to follow a street that wasn’t quite straight with six cameras was beyond me.
That was when Taylor came up with the solution. “You have attacked portals to us when we needed them. Can you just attach the camera portals to the underside of my bugs?”
I turned to her and felt like face palming. A minute or two later we had screens following the path of half a dozen flies all flying smoothly through the air towards the center of town.
A part of me was concerned that someone in the street would notice the bugs behaving strangely and either kill them or capture them. It wouldn’t have been a problem since the cameras were on our side of the portals… but no one did anything. In fact I would have thought we would have been discovered in a matter of only a few minutes because the Aburame, a Konaha ninja clan, in particular was known to be able to control bugs via hormones, chakra, and training. On the other hand, everyone might have just assumed that one of said clan was responsible for our strange flies and ignored the entire thing.
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In the end it took us almost an hour to find our way to ‘the rusty kunai’ and spot some ninja. As expected from the name, inside we found several dozen ninja, several of which were actually in the special ops, referred to as ANBU, which was instantly recognizable from their uniforms and porcelain masks.
Looking at the girls who knew what those masks represented I asked, “I know we said we aim for mid grade, but I don’t think we could ask for anything better than this. Several even look pretty smashed and have some exposed skin. Should we try to copy them?”
Everyone looked a little conflicted, but it was Sabah that actually pulled us back from getting greedy. “I think we need to look like civilians first. We don't have any idea how to use this power and we don’t want to be under the scrutiny that having the chakra of an active high level shinobi would give us.”
I sighed. “You are right. We need practice with lower levels first and we don’t want to be caught and interrogated as ninja infiltrators. Meanwhile I doubt anyone would look twice at someone who has the chakra system barely more advanced than a child. We can think about developing a more advanced version later”
Opening another portal I sent it quickly towards what looked like a civilian apartment complex where I had seen some kids playing. Finding a kid taking a nap somewhere would hopefully give us the information we needed.
That turned out to be surprisingly easy as we found a twelve-year-old boy apparently napping under the branches of a tree next to said apartments. There was a training post in the field and after a moment I noticed that he was surrounded by two others. The boy next to him was pretty plain, but the girl had her almost orange hair in two short pigtails that rose nearly vertically off of her head like a V and two lines across her cheeks. Frowning I felt like I almost recognized her, but I just couldn’t place her. Turning back I focused back on the first young boy again. That gave me pause until I really looked at the forehead bandana with goggles, the spiky hair… and long scarf…
I grimaced, “Damn it, we found Konohamaru.”
He was one of Naruto’s few friends and the grandson of the Hokage… it also meant that the area was being watched by ANBU right now.
While we were considering that, Taylor moved the bugs into the ninja restaurant and started scouting the area exceptionally carefully. Unlike the street outside, it was almost scary how quickly these elite ninjas spotted the bugs. Not only that, but most of the ANBU didn’t let the bugs leave their sight.
The three exceptions who didn’t seem to notice were a man and a woman, who were whispering in a corner together and a single woman staring blankly out of the window, obviously lost deep in her memories with half a dozen bottles of sake around her.
I sighed. “Well… we found six people we could target. The problem is three are ANBU, and the other three are Konohamaru and his two friends… who are undoubtedly being watched by ANBU because he is the Hokage’s grandson.”
I was amused to see Amy, Dinah, and Sabah almost squee-ing over the boy ninja, now that they had confirmed that it was Konohamaru. Dinah even gave a little giggle at seeing the iconic goggles.
A moment later Amy got back into the science mindset. “I really think we should get an example of a male and female ninja and we should get an example of both a child and an adult. We want to be able to grow and I suspect we don’t want our new chakra systems to cause issues if they really do act like a second nervous or cardiovascular system. I say we go for the ANBU and if we are discovered, we just retreat and try again somewhere else in a few days.”
I sighed and took another look at our options. “I could probably get a portal underneath them, probably on the back of their heel or something. Everyone in this world is wearing those sandals after all. That should give you enough room to get a finger on them through a portal, Amy.”
I could see Amy getting even more excited as she smiled. “Come on, let's do it.”
Sighing, I glanced back at the rusty kunai restaurant before looking at everyone else. No one looked happy besides Amy, but no one disagreed so I hesitantly gave her the green light. “Like Sabah said, let's start with the kids. Then once we have an idea of how the chakra works in general, we can take a risk with the ANBU.”
Opening said portals was a little tricky as I didn’t want to have the bugs fly anywhere near the kids in case someone was watching. That meant I needed to judge the distances and open at the heel directly. Ironically, because my portal would fail if I tried to open a portal inside something solid, it was actually best to try to get too close and back off slowly.
However, despite my worry I got both of my first set of portals below them, one on Konohamaru and one on his girl teammate Moegi. Amy didn’t even hesitate as she carefully reached through and touched the two ninja under foot between the straps of their ninja sandals. Her finger only had to extend about a quarter inch out of the portal.
I was a little surprised at the lack of hesitation, but then again she had basically been drooling at the chance of inspecting Ahsoka to learn more about biology and despite these two being human their chakra system was probably just as new. It might even have been more interesting because of that.
Apparently it was lunch as a few minutes later Sabah and Luna brought around some sort of lasagna dish, but I was too distracted in my inspection to really pay much attention to what I was eating.
Amy was apparently equally enthralled as her eyes were glassy and she was staring out vacantly into the distance and muttering things that I was pretty sure anyone without multiple PhDs in biology would struggle to understand. By the time I finished my own inspection, probably about half an hour later, she hadn’t even touched her food.
Not wanting to interrupt her, I turned and started to study the ANBU who appeared to have gotten even more wasted as she was slumped across the table. My inspection didn’t require touch which was less risky so I had more options on where to place the portal. The ANBU was slumped across the table with her forehead on her left arm. Her right was hanging limply down her side. Choosing to place it between her elbow and waist where no one else could see the dark spot of my portal, I focused on her stomach as most of the differences were around that area.
It was probably another ten minutes before Amy came out of her first fugue. She blinked several times before she glanced down at the food next to her, picked up her fork, and began shoveling it down. A moment later she was pushing me to the side, gesturing me to move my portal closer so she could study the ANBU since her mouth was still full.
Shaking my head at Amy’s obsession I moved the portal back down to the heel, this time on the side. Yet as Amy touched the ANBU, she twitched. Amy’s face frowned in annoyance and she narrowed her eyes. We immediately noticed that every other ninja in the restaurant noticed her movement, but when nothing else happened they slowly relaxed. Meanwhile Amy seemed to have put her back down into a light sleep and Amy returned to her vacant look of concentration.
Amy worked for what must have been another half an hour before we were interrupted. In a flash of movement that I was almost completely unable to follow, another ANBU arrived in front of the one we were studying. “ANBU Salamander! Snake has been spotted again at the edge of the exam. You are being summoned, report immediately.”
Our ANBU flinched hard and I noticed several snakes begin to flow down her sleeve before she pulled them back. I blinked and sat back even as I pulled back my portal. That must have been Anko.
Then I kicked myself. I should have realized something was strange with the black chakra moving around the edges of her central chakra pool. That thought made me curious and now I really wanted to take a look at Orochimaru’s seal.
I was also a little surprised because I didn’t remember Anko being ANBU, but then again the Hokage did respect her and trust her and she was on the stronger end of the ninja in the village. Anko being ANBU just made sense. The only strange thing was I was pretty sure she was a proctor during this exam. Did she put on the ANBU mask to make investigating the test takers easier? She might have also been using shadow clones… or pretty much anything else. She was a literal ninja after all.
Sighing I turned to Amy who had slumped back in her chair, obviously tired but happy. “So, it looks like most of the connection to the soul is through the chakra pool around the stomach. There were some other small connections around the spine, up into the head…” I trailed off realizing the connection. “Those might be the eight gates that Guy and his father learned to open. I remember Lee opening the first two in the Chunin exam.”
There was a moment before I realized something else. “Ah… Damn it! I suspect that we are in the middle of the Forest of Death arc in the Chunin exams.”
Again I noticed the confusion from the others who hadn’t seen Naruto and once again wished we hadn’t lost the media computers. I was sure Naruto was one of the ones that I had downloaded. I really needed to replace those asap.
Trying to sum up the current story of Naruto got a few raised eyebrows. Naruto’s team being put up for advancement after only 6 months was a bit strange, but it normally would have been fine. They were somewhat safe inside their home village and it would have been a good learning experience if one of the strongest ninja in the world and an amoral, mad-scientist, and body-jacker hadn’t decided to interrupt the exam, attempt to mark and subvert Sasuke, and try to kill the third Hokage in a massive invasion. Orochimaru’s new and somewhat insane village, the village hidden in the sound, then surprises everyone by allying with the village hidden in the sand for a surprise attack.
It also meant that Naruto and his team must have either been just starting or just finishing the first exam when we spotted them running past us. A part of me wished we could have seen a bunch of ninja newbies trying to cheat on a written test, but it also had dozens of high level ninja watching the room for said cheating and probably would have spotted even our smallest bug cameras.
We still had the chance to watch the second part of the exam which I knew would end up being a lot more exciting… and lethal. Currently they were supposed to collect a scroll from another team and make it to the tower in the center of the forest of death filled with wild animals that could all use chakra. On top of that killing in this part of the exam was not only allowed, but almost encouraged. Then when they finished, they would need to go through preliminaries to further eliminate half the contestants as there were ‘too many’. Finally the winners were given a month to prepare for the finals. Or more accurately, a month for the leaders of each nation and each leader of the hidden villages to travel to attend the finals if they wanted to.
During this time Sasuke would be marked by Orochimaru because he wanted to steal the incredibly powerful body and eyes of an Uchiha. Sasuke being one of the last ones alive from that clan. That made me explain my thoughts on how I wished I had studied Anko’s seal as it might have given me a better idea of how to deal with Tom’s fragment in Holly Potter.
Yet thinking about Sasuke made me pause as I felt like something was wrong. Focusing back on the bugs Taylor had used to keep scanning the area around the restaurant, I looked around but didn’t see anything that seemed out of place.
It was only, about a minute later, that I noticed the Uchiha symbol on a few of the villager’s backs. Taylor looked confused as to why I wanted her to find everyone I could with that symbol until I explained that in the story the Uchiha were completely wiped out by Sasuke’s brother.
A few minutes later we found a compound at the edge of the village filled with Uchiha. I looked confused which was obviously mirrored between Amy, Sabah, and Dinah. Even Sarah, who had come over to look, was obviously confused.
Biting my lip I shrugged. “I don’t know what is going on, but honestly, we should probably leave. If anyone could spot your bugs, it would be an Uchiha or a Hyuga.”
Taylor didn’t waste any time and moved the bug portals away towards the other edge of town in the direction we had seen Anko moving. Turning to me she decided to ask more about my plans. “You said you were interested in Orochimaru’s seal, should we try to find Sasuke then?”
I bit my lip and considered that. We were pretty safe inside our home so it was probably worth the risk. For the same reasons as to why Orochimaru struck in the middle of this forest, this was probably our best chance at studying him, his seal, and his eyes away from any nosey ninja.
Just as I considered that I felt like smacking myself… it was disgusting to think of our similarities with that pedophile… Well, to be fair I wasn’t sure if Orochimaru actually had a sex drive or not. The anime made it kinda seem like he didn’t, but even if his focus on a young boy wasn’t sexual in nature it just meant he was a different type of monster. I mean, all ninjas were a bit messed up. Killing people the village told them to, often just for money, didn’t exactly make them saints, but by that metric a large percentage of soldiers in history were equally as guilty. Plus we weren’t exactly saints either even if we were trying to only hurt those that actually deserved it.
When we finally found the forest the first thing I noticed was the forest was actually just outside the main walls of the village. That wasn’t what the anime described, but it did make way more sense as if it was multiple kilometers across then there was no way it should have fit inside the village walls.
Yet as Taylor began her search for team 7, Amy turned, wanting to discuss what we learned from the ninja’s chakra systems, obviously excited to discuss the details. “It is incredible, it is like a set of microscopic tubes throughout the body, incredibly similar to Neurons. In fact I would say they are made up of the same structure as Axons with Oligodendrocytes structures protecting the tubes. Not only that, but I think at least part of them is actually made of chakra. I couldn’t quite study it directly, but pushing the tiniest part of my magic into them got them to respond. My probes also made their chakra systems produce an automatic response before the brain has even registered the intrusion in the same way wizards in HP do. It is clear at least part of their systems have biological processing in the same way nerves do. It actually made me have to really clamp down hard with their hypothalamus to avoid them waking up.”
There was a moment of silence where we all just looked at Amy, but before her smile could drop I smiled back. “Incredible, but I am sorry love. I think you might have to simplify it a bit for me to really get what you are saying.”
Amy huffed, but took the deferral in good humor as she rolled her eyes. “I think I can make the chakra tubes, they are similar to nerves and run everywhere in the body, primarily expanding out from the stomach area below the liver. However, part of the tubes seem to be made of chakra itself and I can only just barely manipulate it with my magic so it may take me a while to get it right.”
Nodding I turned and considered for a moment before I shrugged. “Lets just do it to my body here. My soul seems nothing if not adaptable and I will be able to see it more clearly if it is happening to me.”
Most of the girls seemed a little nervous about my decision, probably not wanting me to risk myself like that while Dinah and Luna looked less worried, probably because they had already checked to make sure I wouldn’t hurt myself.
However, this method of testing was pretty much the exact same as we had done with the HP magic system and I wasn’t about to test things out on any of them..
As Amy worked I started to feel tingles running up and down my body, yet before I could get properly nervous about the process, it stopped. Taking a deep breath I tried to connect my soul to my inner chakra reservoir. What I had seen wasn’t anything fancy, it looked almost like it just sorta blended together and making those changes wasn’t particularly hard… The question was how was I supposed to know if it was working?
Chakra had several different descriptions on how it was supposed to be awakened in both canon and in fanfiction from meditation, to an outside trigger from someone else like in RWBY, to special herbs that I was supposed to take. So, not knowing what else to try, I decided to start with the simplest method and sat down to meditate on what was supposed to be inside me.
I had gotten pretty good with meditation after learning Occlumency, but I really didn’t feel anything. I was a patient person, but even after what must have been nearly an hour I felt nothing. I only paused to help connect Sabah’s soul to her chakra system and, when she didn't make any progress, then Amy, Taylor, Luna, Dinah, Aisha, and Xeno.. It was actually a little surprising that Alice, Sarah, Ahri, Ahsoka, and Hermione didn’t want to participate yet, but I did suppose they were a bit more cautious. Or maybe they just wanted to be able to help if something went wrong.
Yet even as Ahsoka and Hermione decided to serve dinner, something that used Star Wars ingredients but ended up tasting a lot like a spicy chicken and rice soup, none of us had made any real progress. That actually made a part of me a little happy as I had sat down so confident only to have absolutely no success. Obviously it was a bit more complicated than we had hoped. Then again, we were two years into a Hogwarts education so magic obviously wasn’t simple either.
It was Luna that ended up huffing in irritation and proceeded to walk over to me before sitting down in my lap. “I need more soul.”
I blinked and just about everyone turned to look at her in confusion.
I furrowed my brow trying to figure out what she was talking about before I remembered a comment that she made what must have been months ago by now. About how hiding most of our soul away from the world was disconnecting us from it. If she was right, suddenly Luna’s struggles to push herself with magic and keep up with the golden trio made more sense. She was stronger than the rest of us outside of the HP world, but she was still weaker than most of the others in the HP reality.
To confirm I understood her correctly I asked. “You want me to pull most of your soul back into your body so you can better control it and potentially use chakra? Was that what you meant when you said we were limiting ourselves with our magic by hiding ourselves away?”
Luna smiled like I had finally stopped being stupid. “Yes.”
I sighed long and low. “I see… I am sorry, I should have listened. I know I did it to protect ourselves as much as possible from Masters in Earth Bet and any other brainwashing techniques we came across in the multiverse, but we do have pretty good Occlumency now.”
Xeno smiled as if he was proud of me for not metaphorically hiding myself away and despite myself I actually felt a little happy at the implied praise. “Max, you are not just a mind and a soul. You need to truly grow your body as well if you want to ascend.”
I rubbed my forehead trying to understand what he was saying, but after a moment I realized I should just start at the beginning and worry about the implied final goals later. “You are saying that if I want to actually get stronger, then I have to stop treating my bodies like temporary clothing and start building them up as well?”
Luna just smiled before she nodded.
Sighing again and, for the first time in years, I purposely started pulling my soul back out of my gem. I think I had used more of it when we were attacked while jumping away from Earth Bet and the thought nearly made me stop. It was probably why it was so damaged by the trip, but Luna was right, I had basically been hiding for years now.
I had to stop that.
Stop hiding.
Taking another deep breath I finished moving about 99% of my soul back into my body and attaching it as firmly as I could. It was only then that I realized that I suddenly could feel things a lot better.
More importantly I could start to feel a strange fuzzy feeling in my stomach. I still had no idea how to actually use my chakra, but the fact that I could almost instantly feel something made me want to slap my forehead. Moreover, I realized that my body actually started to respond better and I suspected that my magic was going to be significantly stronger as well.
Was this why I couldn’t properly stick Sam or Jonah back together on Yamatai? I had been trying to tie a small fragment of their soul into their body. Was it because letting the majority of their soul wave around unattached that there wasn’t enough to actually stop the body from dying? This had so many implications.
As I finished adjusting the percentages of souls in the rest of the girls I turned towards Hermione, Alice, Ahsoka, and Thea. “I know we just learned that what we were doing was dumb, but I think you should consider letting me tie a small fragment of your soul to a gem. Taylor actually died and I was only able to bring her back because I had a metaphorical tie to her soul. If you die out here and I am not around to immediately grab your soul I can’t bring you back.”
Hermione hesitated a moment but nodded. “...Ok.”
Ahsoka looked worried for a moment but nodded as well and Thea responded in an almost excited “I think that is a wise idea. I am interested in the process.”
Alice on the other hand took a step back and shook her head. “No.”
Knowing her issues with trust and manipulation I just nodded with a quiet “of course” and moved on.
Twenty minutes later Ahsoka, Hermione, and Thea had a Ruby, sapphire, and diamond tying them to this world respectively ensuring I would have a chance to bring them back if the worst happened.
It was then that Taylor brought us the news that we had been waiting for. “I found them!”
Immediately we all turned towards the holograms showing the bugs' view. I immediately noticed that we had lost two of the six flies we had started out with when we entered the forest of death, but the four remaining flies slowly approached three teenage ninjas in a tree. Sakura looked banged up but was carefully guarding the other two. This meant that we weren’t fast enough to see Orochimaru attack them, which was probably for the best, but apparently it hadn't been too long as Sasuke and Naruto were still knocked out.
The first thing I noticed was that Sakura and Sasuke were not 12 or 13 like they should have been. I would have put them in or around 17. This was the third time that we had found a world where the characters were older than they were in fiction. However this time I wasn’t sure if cannon was wrong, the years were longer here, or chakra was making them grow up faster. Although, glancing at the sky and noticing it still wasn’t dark yet, I was leaning towards a longer day and night cycle and probably longer years overall.
That actually made something in me relax as the idea that Kakashi could have been a ninja on the battlefield at like 5 was so ridiculous as to be insane. No matter how good he was, a 5 year old simply didn’t have enough time to practice to threaten an adult and it would be ridiculous to take the Chunin exam at 6. There simply wasn’t enough time to train him to be any sort of threat to adults even if he started the academy at 3.
However, if the year was somewhere between a third and half again as long. Then a genius Kakashi being roughly a 10 year old taking the Chunin exam was not completely insane especially in wartime. Although it still didn’t explain the rest of the mess that was the pre-naruto timeline.
The second thing I noticed was that Naruto was unconscious… which meant he couldn’t have been using any chakra… which meant I wasn’t seeing an illusionary disguise or some form of his sexy jutsu…
This wasn’t Naruto… it was Naruko…
I sighed, now remembering the pigtails I had seen as we had arrived, before getting up off the floor where I had been meditating and walked over to sit on the sofa. “Well… we found a female naruto. That is good… I guess.”
Most of the girls looked at me in confusion but I shook my head. “Sorry, I was just surprised. Honestly it is just weird as I wasn’t expecting it despite seeing her briefly when we first arrived.”
Seeing Alice’s narrowing eyes I knew she was worried about my response even before she spoke up. “What are you going to do to her?”
I sighed, I really would have to get her a therapist. “Nothing…” Seeing her face I sighed again, “Seriously, nothing. Unless what we know of her story is completely wrong. She loves her village, despite how many people hate her, and she really wants to protect them.”
It was then that I noticed her clothes. It looked like a black and orange battle kimono. Bringing up my suspicions I continued. “Plus, she is actually dressed pretty well… I wonder if the village is treating her better than in cannon.”
It was Amy who tilted her head and asked, “Why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know… maybe they thought a young girl without parents was in greater danger than a young boy. Or… or maybe Hiruzen remembered that the seal was weakened by pregnancy and wanted to make sure Naruko wasn’t in that type of danger. After all, the last thing they wanted was another attack. Or maybe it made her look more like her mother who was a niece of Hiruzen’s wife and that made him sentimental.”
It was Sabah who turned to Luna and asked. “Is that what you meant by things being better than expected? Naruko being treated a little better and not all the Uchiha being wiped out?”
Luna smiled a bit but shrugged. “You know I don’t see the entire picture, especially across realities.”
Turning to Dinah, Sabah asked. “Is that what happened? Did the Uchiha massacre just not occur?”
There was nearly another minute of muttering before Dinah shrugged. “68.5% chance that what Max said was correct. However there is only a 23.6% chance the Uchiha massacre did not occur.”
I sighed, rubbing my forehead. “Ok… so that isn’t nearly as clear as I had hoped, but it is good to know that Naruko is being treated a bit better. The problem is I can’t even guess all the implications and consequences of a better treated Naruko and a Uchiha clan still being mostly alive.”
I then tilted my head, “That said, I wonder if this isn’t just a bit more realistic. The idea of letting your secret weapon be openly hated and potentially hurt by the entire village is incredibly stupid. At best you get a socially awkward ninja who is loyal to only a few people who show him kindness. At worst your secret weapon hates your village and may just unleash the monster inside him on you on purpose.”
I paused and tilted my head. “Plus the idea that any attack on a clan hundreds strong in a single night with no one noticing or escaping is also pretty silly. I am pretty positive it was established that even Itachi’s completely overpowered eyes could only control one person at a time. So, a decapitating strike by Itachi against the elders of the clan would be possible, but killing every member would be ridiculous even with help.”
I noticed Dinah looking confused so I laid it out even further. “That isn’t even touching the fact that they must have married outside the clan occasionally and the idea that all of them would be home at the same time when their clan was Konoha’s police force and thus would have night patrols is insane. Even if Danzo ordered all their missions outside the village terminated so they would return to their compound and the attack could be possible, said attack would have been obvious to the paranoid ninja around the area. That is also ignoring the fact that there must have been a few of them on Itachi’s level. They had just finished a war and it would be crazy to think that no one else had his level of skill or that special Mangekyō Sharingan. Plus, like I said, it was also exceptionally clear later on in the story that Itachi couldn’t use his Sharingan that often or on so many people so he couldn’t have used the restraint technique he used on everyone in the Uchiha compound. Even if Obito helped him, that is just too much for a covert attack in the center of the village.”
Shaking my head, “Sorry, I got carried away. Regardless, while it doesn’t change the fact that I want to study Sasuke’s seal and probably his eyes, we need to focus on learning what we can of Chakra before we leave. We might even want to try to grab some of their technique scrolls.”
Everyone gave a nod at that with Taylor, Amy, Dinah, Sabah, and Alice looking particularly eager at the possibility.
Interlude Taylor:
Taylor was a little amused at her… friends… sister wives… fellow consorts. She would have to think of a better way of addressing them since they weren’t married yet.
Regardless, she would have thought that they had found their favorite boy band member when they started recognizing the characters. When Max was asleep it had been even worse with some straight up fan-girling at the possibilities of who they would meet.
Perhaps ironically it was Sabah that had been the most excited by seeing the actual real people from this world since she had usually been the most uninterested out of everyone here in the places they visited.
Still, as she considered what she could do with some ninja stealth and how she could combine that with the information she got from her bugs…
Well, the bastards that hurt her friends, like Alexandria, had better watch their backs. She had apparently killed her in another reality and she could do it again.