RE: Fantasy Unleashed (Prologue Arc) needs major editting
Okay, as recommended by people that use the IRC room, I decided to post the prologue of the story here. Hopefully I can get this brought up to par.
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Fantasy Unleashed
Story written by Xamusel and co-written by F-14 Tomcat Lover
Beta’d by HolyKnight5 and Darkflyer531
Prologue: A Fated Change
“It was somewhat busy in the streets of Konoha, a village of ninja and regular people, that night on October Ninth five years back. Not many hooligans were wandering around town, nor were there that many other people that skirted across the legalities of life. If anything, the people that were known crooks and such were either behind bars or staying out of trouble some other way, because of the fact that the majority of the troublemakers knew better than to try murdering someone that was deemed untouchable by the Hokage, otherwise known as the leader of the village.
Of course, not everything was meant to withstand the waves of time. If anything, the untouchable status was only applicable for so long, because the person wanted to be a Shinobi that would be respected by everyone in the village. Nobody would take a ninja seriously if they didn’t have some way to back their claims, mind you, especially one in the Bingo Book, or a book for bounty hunting other ninjas.
If one were to look at the history of the person’s family, you’d learn that they’d contained some precious sway over the title of Hokage. Not many people could pull that off, namely because of political reasons, but those in the family did pull it off to a “tâ€. Nobody knew about the whole story, because of so many things that were decreed forbidden, but it should go without saying that these people were major threats to those that wanted to be a Hokage any time soon.
Still, I shouldn’t bore you with family lessons for a family that is almost completely dead, because that sort of story wouldn’t be anywhere near entertaining enough for anyone. Instead, I’ll stick with the details of what happened four October Ninth’s back, that would forever change the course of history. It was nighttime then, and a big party was being planned for the next day, one for a birthday....â€
XxX
The sky was relatively clear atop the Hokage Monument, and hardly anyone would look for people up on the monument itself, especially ‘no-name’ orphans like one Uzumaki Naruto. His sun-kissed blonde hair was a spiky mess like normal, his cerulean blue eyes were closed because he was tired, and his orange and blue track suit was falling apart because of how much of his training he was doing on his own that required some extra help. It was a testament to his rate of healing that he was not losing an awful lot of blood.
He knew for a fact that he had nobody in life to call family, unless you counted his surrogate family of ANBU, but he certainly didn’t. He knew that others would have family to look out for them, to make sure that they didn’t go too far with training, but he wasn’t like that. He wanted to know what a mother’s love was like, for one thing, and he wanted to know what having any siblings was like. It wasn’t much to ask for, mind you, but nobody wanted to adopt him as it stood.
It wasn’t much of a consolation prize, but his dreams were pretty much geared towards him having family, one where he was the eldest child of five. Then again, maybe it was hero worship influencing his dreams, but he had the perfect image of the Yondaime Hokage, or Fourth Great Hokage, as his father named Namikaze Minato. In his dreams, he wished that he had his mother’s hair, because he couldn’t really stand how messy his hair was.
The clock was moving closer to midnight, but the village was unaware of it all, because everyone was busy with something or other. Nothing was noted as out of the ordinary for until Eleven at Night struck, as a heavy fog started to roll into the village, covering most everything that was in the village until it reached the chin of the Hokage face in the bottom position of the row of faces. It wasn’t much of a threat to people’s survival, but nobody knew what it was doing, and what the overall outcome would be.
XxX
Touji Mizuki, a silver-haired Chuunin with a bandana, proudly displaying the emblem of Konoha, over his hair, was currently fighting for his life while on a mission for Konoha. He was expecting bandits on this escort mission to the Daimyo’s second residence, or at least bandits that were tired of how ninja were the current military, but he wasn’t getting his expectations this time around. Instead of bandits that wanted to at least kidnap the Daimyo’s wife....
‘Shit! This would be bad enough if I was alone, but the Daimyo’s wife is here, too! I can’t use my more destructive techniques while she’s around!’ Mizuki cursed in his head, namely because he was under obligation to keep his employer alive, especially from these unseen assailants that seemed to love messing with his ability to detect them.
It was bad enough that he had to keep this overweight excuse of a noble alive, but the enemy forces were determined to kill him and the woman for some unknown reason, which really was annoying him to no end. It was definitely a good thing that the assailants didn’t kill either of them yet, but there were strange things about the enemies, things that Mizuki didn’t know how to replicate.
For one thing, the assailants were using bows and arrows, and not the kind of arrows you’d find in a war museum of any sort. Then there was the fact that the arrows had flammable tips that liked to explode on contact with anything that they embedded themselves in. Add in the fact that they seemed to be immune to their own ammunition, and you have one rightfully paranoid ninja fighting for his life, plus the life of his client.
Then an explosion occurred near him, staggering him as his mind automatically began to replay the immediate events leading up to the moment.
Mizuki stretched, working a kink out of his shoulder as he walked along. He hid how much he hated the pace they were going, like any ninja for that matter. Slow, exposed, and easy targets, it was a recipe for a quick kill. Namely him and the others.
He heard one of the Chunin yawn. He really didn’t know the guy, but he came in a pair with another Chunin. Two were largely used for Intelligence matters, but had to go out and earn their pay on occasion like he had to. The other member with them, the Jonin in charge, was Aoba; again Mizuki didn’t know much about him.
It was something he didn’t like. They were a scratch team essentially. While Aoba was from the Hokage’s own Jonin force, the other two were simply Intel Weenies, though they did have skills from what Iruka had told him. The real force to protect the Daimyo’s wife, he knew, was the six ANBU moving through the trees and the four Ninja Guards that served the Daimyo directly.
Those last four were intermixed into the ranks of attendants, there were about some 30 or so of them. The actual samurai detail was a little larger than the norm, but this was the Daimyo’s wife they were talking about, so there were about 20 of them, plus another four Elite Guardsmen of Inner Fire, the protectors of the Daimyo’s castle.
All in all, there were about 60 or so in the convoy of three wagons and one carriage.
The sun was shining, even though the day was growing late itself. They weren’t far from Konoha either, so at least he could expect some 20 ANBU to be in the surrounding area, at worst, the furthest would be another thirty minutes away. The palace they were heading to had a full time guard as well as some Ninja Guards and a squadron of mounted cavalry, something no bandit, even low ranking Nuke-Nin, liked to be on the wrong end of.
“So I’m figuring that if we name him Ichimatsu, he’ll be some kind of ninja like Samurai that would be a terror to ninja everywhere,†Mizuki caught the butt end of a joke and could only roll his eyes, the two samurai behind him were having a laugh at the ninjas’ expense, but that was normal by play between the two fighting groups.
“You sure about that?†Aoba smirked back, “How do you know he won’t become
a ninja?â€
“Probably because he’ll be the one in head to toe armor!†Aoba had a laugh with the two samurai, all knowing that some ninja actually wore actual battle armor, just not as often as samurai.
“It is getting late my lady,†the female guard captain suddenly spoke from near the Daimyo's overweight wife, “We should begin to make camp,†though she was speaking to her liege’s wife, she kept her naginata close and her eyes on the surrounding terrain.
‘Not like she could miss much of the fat woman in any event,’
Mizuki thought in his mind, ‘I can see why the Daimyo has an unusual number of concubines and hidden mistresses,’
Mizuki knew that the fat woman had also not produced a single heir to his knowledge and that all the heirs were from other women and that was causing more than one mild issue in the capital, ‘Sucks to be him sometimes, I guess.’
“Hm,†the fat woman made a sound, her poor cat as always crushed against her, “I see no reason to stop at once, a little farther and then so.â€
Mental groans met that statement despite a chorus of confirmations. The woman would be more than a handful if they didn’t set up quickly enough before dark. She was such an embodiment of what scholars and religious types preached to be wary of. Mizuki hoped and prayed he never ended up like that!
A couple of hours later they were setting up camp. Something though, was tensing all the ninja and guards. Something not quite right, but also not quite wrong.
‘What is it?’
Mizuki wondered and then the first arrow flew out and the explosion started a night of hellish confusion from then on out.
In seconds things were out of control, he saw guards get thrown through the air as everyone turned to try and make sense of the sudden ambush. Explosions kept going off though; people were falling, guard and servant alike. There were too many and the attacks just kept coming. They were off balance; this was definitely not a ninja attack as the explosions filled the air with light and sound. Bandits were also not so stupid, because aside from the ANBU patrols, there were always teams of Chunin and Jonin out on patrol, being the more visible patrols, the visible deterrence like an armed guard in front of a bank.
‘There!’
Mizuki thought, it was Aoba and he was beginning to make sense of the confusion, at least the part that was the most important, protect the Daimyo’s wife!
Leaping over a dead guard, Mizuki was beside the fat woman in a mere second.
Expanding his Chakra senses in a meter radius on instinct, he decided to go with his gut on this battle, seeing that he didn’t know where the enemy was at by way of his other five senses. Knowing that he had to work on expanding his Chakra senses more, he nonetheless managed to find out the location of their allies closest to the two of them on the road, and they were hiding in the trees. He needed at least one of them alive, though he wasn’t picky about who would be left alive, so it would have to be determined after he kicked the crap out of them!
Running through the needed hand seals to use the Goukakyuu no Jutsu, he breathed in a heavily needed amount of air to make the fireball as large as he could make it, then he released the fireball into the trees where the nearest of the assailants were hiding. He was not disappointed when a scream of pain erupted from behind the trees as a powerful explosion tore into the trees and uprooted the unknowns. As soon as he got a clear look at the enemies, he gaped at what he saw.
The unknowns were kinda like samurai in appearance, but they lacked the helmets that regular samurai had, and also lacked any sort of standard samurai equipment. Instead of all that, though, these warriors wore plates of metal with some jagged spikes sticking out of the arms and legs of the suits, had shields on their left arms, and were each holding onto a straight double-edged sword that had a strange marking made onto the blade. It certainly wasn’t kanji, but it looked something like a black sun, plus the blade was starting to chip away from the fireball’s explosion.
Mizuki didn’t stay shocked at what he saw, though, as he almost immediately had to dodge another arrow from one of the mystery enemies. It was a good thing that he was able to dodge the arrows headed his way, but the latest projectile hit the carriage of the Daimyo’s wife, causing that to go up in flames by means of an explosion. Mizuki groaned at that, meaning that they had to put up with the fat woman’s complaining about how she shouldn’t have to walk, as it would be beneath her to walk long distances.
“I hate my life sometimes,†Mizuki muttered to himself. Before he could stop himself in the middle of the battle, he saw a strange monstrosity out of the corner of his right eye. It looked like a cross between a hawthorn tree and a lion, but not with the normal materials that make up a lion, but as if it was made out of vines, thorny branches, flowers and roots. Not only that, but there were more of them that he could sense outside of the perception of the remaining fire, and they looked rather bloodthirsty.
Apparently, Mizuki wasn’t the only one to notice these monsters, as the enemy suddenly shifted gears and rushed the tree monsters. The only ones among the enemies that didn’t rush the monsters were out for the count, who Mizuki decided to see if he could take a couple of them, and take note of the location of the others, in hopes he could take them to Morino Ibiki when they finished the mission, should anybody survive the next couple days. It was more like the unknowns would end up dead before they got back to the village, but that was surely impossible, right?
Suddenly, a morbid thought entered Mizuki’s head, namely about how the unknowns would be able to evade interrogation. It was an off-chance, but he couldn’t let his paranoia say that he failed to look for it, as cyanide pills should be common practice for soldiers evading capture like that. With that morbid thought, Mizuki decided to investigate the soldiers who were out for the count, so as to satisfy his paranoid self.
When he arrived at the spots where each of the soldiers had fallen, he discovered that they didn’t have cyanide pills to ingest, which meant that they were assuming that they’d stay safe overall. He then prepared to set up a signal flare to get a team of ANBU to come and collect the enemies, only to hear death cries from the direction of the tree monsters, signifying that the enemies were dying to these strange entities.
Looking at the monsters, Mizuki could see that they were indeed dangerous, and thus needed to be destroyed. However, he didn’t know if fire would work like it should against trees, but he was willing to experiment on these monsters to find out. Thinking this through, however, he realized that he needed a long blade to help defend him...self....
‘Wait a minute, that’s IT!!’ Mizuki wasted no time in grabbing one of the swords from the sword-using soldiers, as he knew this would be important if he were to survive against these creatures. As soon as he readied himself to fight the monsters, he found that they were gazing in a hungry-like manner at him, as most of the enemy was dead because of the monsters. As soon as he got the sword into position, he had to act really fast, as the monsters were heading his way.
Suddenly, time seemed to really slow down around Mizuki, as the monsters were very slowly leaping in mid-air while Mizuki had no idea what was going on. It was as if a hidden ability were unlocked within him, like an Uchiha’s Sharingan, but that didn’t really make sense....
“Channel energy into me,†a voice said in Mizuki’s head, making Mizuki look in the direction of the sword in his hands.
“If you don’t, you’ll die, so what’s your answer?â€
Mizuki had no choice in what he’d do, other than one thing.
‘I’ll do it,’ he mentally stated to the sword, hoping he could get it to do what he needed it to do. With years of Chakra exercises going for him, Mizuki channeled Chakra into the bladed weapon.
Fortunately for him, it seemed that his Chakra was allowed to enter the sword. The sword that seemed alive also seemed surprised by the energy flowing into it. It was a new take on energy it already knew and it honestly enjoyed the new freshness of it. It also felt the power surged within, as did Mizuki.
“Swing,†was the simple request and Mizuki did so.
First a horizontal slash, followed by a vertical slash and then topped off with a thrust as flames erupted from the blade, lighting up the night as Mizuki looked on awed at first before a smile appeared on his face.
“Now who’s up for s'mores tonight?â€
‘Where tree leaves dance, one shall catch fire and illuminate the village,’ the voice of the Sandaime Hokage seemed to echo as a memory of distant past came to the fore.
XxX
At the same time that Mizuki was fighting for his life....
Yakushi Kabuto, a silver-haired Jonin-level Genin that needed to wear glasses, was meeting with his liege in the recently made Hidden Village of Sound about a plan that the leader had in mind. Kneeling before his liege, Kabuto waited for the Otokage to finish reading a report that had been handed to him earlier that day, considering that the leader had to deal with experiments before that point.
As it stood, Kabuto was waiting for something like fifteen minutes before he realized that something was wrong. As he lifted his head to take a look, he realized that his liege... had fallen asleep in his chair?
‘Okay, this is bad,’ Kabuto realized in his thoughts. As soon as he stood up and looked at the clock, he saw that it was quarter past 11, which he realized would be enough reason for his liege to fall asleep in his chair. With that, he gave a sigh and walked over to Orochimaru Goshuushou-sama, making sure to keep his liege from snapping awake at an inopportune time. While he’d prefer not to carry his liege bridal style to his room to go to bed, Kabuto was more than obligated to keep Orochimaru from destroying his own body, especially while sleeping in places unsuited for sleep. About three-fourths of the way to his liege’s chair....
A hidden panel in the floor activated a wake-up call for Orochimaru, by means of giving him an electrical shock that would kill 20 normal men, their wives and each of their five kids.
But if that didn’t work, there was also the old fashion cold water bucket, followed up by another shock, since it would be magnified, and then if that didn’t work, there was more.
Though these were all largely for dealing with would be usurpers, but hey, everything was multipurpose these days.
As soon as Orochimaru was finished with the impromptu wake-up call, he looked for the report, which had somehow survived the destruction of most of his chair. As he found it, he realized that Kabuto was the one to wake him up, which made him wonder what was going on.
“Kabuto, why did you wake me up in
that particular way?†Orochimaru demanded of his doctor and right hand man, which would have made a lesser man than Kabuto flinch or step back in terror.
As testament to how much Kabuto could deal with this, he answered, “I was just trying to get you to bed, Orochimaru-sama, not kill you in an attempt to wake you up.â€
Seeing that Kabuto wasn’t one to lie about something like this, Orochimaru calmed down and said, “Alright. I do want to know the status of things on your end, before the time comes for us to raze Konoha and make off with the final Uchiha, so that we’ll be able to kill all of the villagers that oppose us.â€
With a nod, Kabuto began his status report, “I checked when the Konoha Chuunin Exams will be. They’ll happen right on schedule, unless something strange happens to make a mess of the program for graduating Genin, like the Hokage deciding out of the blue to have the squads formed differently and needing an extra year to make the genin more combat ready.â€
XxX
Within Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen sneezed while putting an idea of his onto paper, one that would allow for a Genin to act as a squad sergeant that facilitated orders to his fellow teammates for the Jonin sensei.
XxX
Orochimaru nodded in approval, glad that he was not going to be on the receiving end of a disaster for this plan, which still needed a codename for operation status. With a look at Kabuto’s eyes, he saw that there was more to this than what he was being told right now, so he gestured for Kabuto to continue.
Kabuto sighed, hoping that he could at least wait on delivering the bad news for until morning, but luck wasn’t on his side today. “I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but there’s a problem we didn’t foresee in our planning stages, Orochimaru-sama,†Orochimaru fixed his master spy with a dedicated gaze as Kabuto pushed his glasses back up his nose, reflecting the weak candle light to some degree, “Monsters have started appearing near our borders and near the borders of other nations, creatures we never saw before are posing issues to the stability of many nations, and so much more that has gone awry.â€
Orochimaru nodded, “Not good, but not like large beasts haven’t been a problem before,†hoping that this problem would go away somehow, but feeling that it wouldn’t go away that easily. He didn’t know how these monsters would be able to affect his plans, but he also knew that it would be a problem for the citizens of Konoha if they were to survive without a village, so he decided to store the info in his head for when the time came that he’d need it.
Suddenly, Orochimaru felt like he should go to bed and took a look at the time, so he said to Kabuto, “I’ll be headed off to rest then. Be ready to prepare for helping me test my new technique for the sake of immortality tomorrow.†With that, he walked over to his chambers to get some much-needed sleep.
Kabuto, now on his own, looked at the clock and decided that he’d better get some rest himself. Before leaving, he pulled out a scroll from his scroll container and put it at Orochimaru’s chair in the leadership chambers. With that done, Kabuto left his surprise for his liege and headed to his room to get some sleep.
Little did anyone know what sort of chaos would come from the events of the fog rolling into Konoha and the monsters appearing in a world where they didn’t belong. As a matter of fact, with everything about to go to hell in a handbasket, nobody would be able to understand how bad things really were.
“To learn so much, but fail to grasp any of what you learn, that is your greatest failure,†Orochimaru and Kabuto both thought they heard.
XxX
“For those of you that might know how this story would normally go, you might be wondering why we dealt with two portions worth of story on known bad guys, when we should be dealing with the good guys. Well, considering what had gone awry by this point in time, it would be more like one of those known bad guys would be a deuteragonist. As for whom this person is... I’ll leave it to you to figure it out on your own.
Now, with the preparations for the party the next day completed by 2355, people were hoping to see the guest of honor show up for his initial party at the ninja academy as soon as the school day started. They weren’t disappointed in that respect the day of the party....â€
XxX
Naruto awoke to find himself in his room and in his pajamas, the training from the night before having improved his body quite considerably. After having been fed a healthy meal before the training commenced, he had grown a few extra inches during his sleep, thanks to the fact that all the healthy food he’d been eating started acting as a boost to his health and his ability to fight attackers from other villages or nations. As a second benefit of the training and the healthy food, Naruto grew his muscles out a small degree, which made him realize that he was missing out when it came to what he could eat.
Still, this wasn’t Naruto’s time to stay home and look at his muscles. He got himself ready to get into the shower and stepped in, turned on the water, and started contemplating his life to that point. He knew that his life wasn’t exactly pleasant, but there were those that cared for him and really, that’s what mattered most.
Though it still steamed him every time someone looked down on him. Soon though, he was going to be showing them. He was going to go out and become Hokage! Then they would have no choice but to respect him, because he dared and won it all!
“Naruto-san, please hurry,†Neko-chan called through the door and Naruto yelped, he was always going lost in thought in the shower!
Quickly turning off the shower, getting dried, and then getting a pair of boxers and a shirt on, Naruto rushed to the door and opened it, hoping that Neko-chan wasn’t there on the other side of the door. Unfortunately for him, Lady Luck wasn’t on his side this time, as Neko-chan was about to open the door to see what was taking him.
With a crash, Naruto and Neko-chan were sent sprawling to the floor, thus allowing for an embarrassingly compromising position of Naruto groping Neko-chan down to the floor and Naruto’s immediate reaction to go almost literally ballistic in order to get off when he realized what had happened.
Neko-chan, for all her respect and love for her boyfriend, couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if Naruto were ever to hit puberty and this happened again.
Naruto was soon dressed and all the way out of the building, but Neko reached out and stopped him. Naruto looked rather like he was in a rush, but then again...
“Naruto-san, your clothes,†and the blonde blinked, looked down at himself and gave a yelp, before he went back into his place. He had good reason to, because his clothes were dirty, and they were on inside out.
Neko-chan then waited, frowning. Something was wrong and she knew it too. Naruto never took that long after she stopped him when he lost track of himself. Just as she was about to knock, Naruto stuck his head out sheepishly.
“I forgot to do my laundry, ehehe,†Naruto rubbed the back of his head and the purple haired ANBU kunoichi only sighed.
“Please find something Naru-chan,†the boy only groaned, “and be quick about it too.â€
Naruto disappeared back in before returning out a few minutes later. Luckily, he remembered an outfit the Hokage had given him a few years earlier. There had been a mix up with the people he had placed the order with and as such, the outfit had been a bit too big back then. Now though, Naruto stood at the height of a boy a few years his senior and the outfit was only loose.
It was a pair of cargo styled ninja pants in orange and blue. The legs were tapped off and had white leggings covering them and most of his sandalled feet. It was held up by a white belt. The top was a black t-shirt covered by a blue vest, sandwiching a layer of armor between, with an orange coat with blue shoulders.
To the uninformed, it looked like all Naruto did was style his favorite outfit. The reality was that this was a more durable one with lined cloth armor inside and tougher material construction, on the same level of the Hyuuga Clan’s clothes. It had been a mix up of paperwork that had made a more combat ready style of outfit for Naruto.
It even came with a cloth cap that Naruto could rest his goggles on.
“My my,†the woman nodded, “Looks serious Naru-chan,†she giggled at his look, “Come on, time to go now,†and Naruto nodded, locking up and then heading out to class, for once fully outfitted.
A bell sounded in the distance and Naruto panicked.
“Ah man!†he shouted as he started running, "I’M GONNA BE LATE!!!!â€
An old woman, one who never really had any problem with Naruto, only grunted at the blonde running by, “Just like his mother, dear lord, who’s the female Hokage going to be?â€
Several older people only chuckled at the woman’s pun.
XxX
Within the ruins of a nation to the west of Nami no Kuni, otherwise known as the Land of Waves, there was a building that was miraculously still standing because of the fuinjutsu keeping it maintained. This building was originally home to the country’s Daimyo and his family, back during the days of the Third Great Shinobi War, though the entire country was currently devoid of any citizens that would care for restoring the destroyed nation to its former glory.
Unless you count someone that was still alive in the Daimyo’s old residence, who was unable to do anything about the destruction of her home country, due to being stuck in the equivalent of a cryogenic stasis pod in the Shinobi Nations.
Within laid a young girl. She was a blonde girl with snow white skin, an unusual trait for her nation. She was, when standing, 112 centimeters tall. She had long blonde hair, at least for a girl of her height. The file, nestled in its holder attached to the machine, stated she had green eyes, since the cover had mysteriously come undone from the rest and that information peeked out.
This girl was known as Uzuhara Natsume, a superb inventor at the chronological age of 38, and best friend of Uzumaki Kushina. It was somewhat hard to believe that she had that sort of friendship, but she and Kushina were nigh-inseparable, what with the fact that they promised to be related to each other one of these days. That was one thing they had in common, even if most of the things about them were not in common at all, for any reason.
...That, and Natsume was currently at her biological age of 10, having been put in the stasis pod 28 years prior. She didn’t know what happened after the time she was put in the stasis pod, but she was just doing a five day long check to see how the effects of Cryo would affect the human body of someone from outside the Uzumaki clan. She just wished that someone would open the door for her to return to the world of the living....
Suddenly, the door opened by way of one of the helper golems pushing a button that was connected to the stasis pod opening up, causing her to defrost and wake up slowly but surely. She didn’t know what all had transpired over the five days she was supposed to stay in cryo, but she was going to find out, so she darted her eyes to a... calendar....
“What happened to the calendar?†Natsume asked herself, before she noticed that there weren’t any people in the area, but only the helper golems. Since this was something she was used to, however, she shrugged and remembered her nude state. As she went to get some clothes from her room in the Daimyo’s mansion, she noticed the disturbing lack of people, which screamed in her head that something was remarkably off with her predictions.
Soon, she arrived at her room in the Daimyo’s mansion, only to see out the window the horrid truth. Her home country, Uzu no Kuni, was in ruins by means of some disastrous war that took out all but herself as it would seem. A tear went down her face, then another, and then multiple more started to form as she fully wept for those that lost their lives. It also seemed that her heart was about to break into multiple pieces, because all her loved ones were now gone, probably killed in battle or worse....
“Mistress Natsume,†a familiar voice from her favorite golem came from behind her, causing her to turn around to give it her attention. This particular golem, unlike the others, which were not even humanoid in appearance, looked around her age, but had spiky blue hair in twin ponytails, crimson eyes, and pointed ears to make her more distinct. Also, unlike the other golems, this one had clothing on in a style just for a girl. ‘She’ wore a green shirt with a pair of blue thigh-length shorts under a red skirt.
“Yes, Mika?†Natsume asked the golem with a shaky voice, unsure whether or not her friend would be able to help her out of this predicament. She wanted to be with her human friends, if they were still alive, or die and no longer worry about her friends waiting for her on the other side.
“You were asleep for exactly 28 years to the second in stasis, Mistress Natsume, and missed Kushina getting married and having a son of her own. I was asked by your best friend to keep you informed of her wellbeing through the connection you and she have through me, and so far, it would appear that she’s doing alright somehow.â€
As soon as she heard Kushina’s name, Natsume’s eyes widened, and her tearful expression was now adorned with a joyful smile. “Kushina’s...†she whispered. In an instant, she immediately rushed off to her walk-in closet to grab clothes, and then rushed out with some in hand to get dressed in.
Before Mika could ask what Natsume was doing, Natsume answered, “I’m preparing to move to where Kushina is. If she remembers me from 28 years ago, I’m sure that she’ll help me get adjusted to life wherever she is, regardless of circumstances in her life.†Pausing her voice as she put her blue, black, and white sleeveless collar shirt on all the way, she continued as she put on the separate blue sleeves, “Besides which, I want to know how her family life is treating her, seeing that she probably has nobody but her husband and son left any longer.â€
As soon as Natsume had her sleeves secured with metal bands, she turned her attention to her black socks and brown shoes, which she put on effortlessly. After the socks and shoes, she put on her white gloves and went to her weapons cache that had thankfully been locked all this time, and unlocked the cache to reveal a personal pride and joy of hers. Inside the cache was a pair of weapons she called “pistolsâ€, as well as a huge amount of kunai and shuriken, but those weren’t preserved by means of fuinjutsu or anything.
As Natsume put the pistols on her back, she said to Mika, tears still flowing from her eyes, but out of joy this time, “Prepare the teleportation seals. We’re going to move to Konoha, and we need to gather everything that’s associated with us to move with us, so we really shouldn’t skimp out on what we take with us.â€
With a nod for the affirmative, Mika moved to prepare the teleportation seals in the basement level of the castle, all the while making sure to have a helper golem or two go to Natsume to help pack all the stuff that she owned. With the golems on the way, ‘she’ descended to the basement level, making sure that nothing was out of place.
Two hours later, Mika and Natsume were finishing the packing job from Natsume’s room and making sure that they didn’t miss anything, and this included the weapons cache. By the time everything from her room was packed, Natsume moved over to the lab to get to packing from there, so as to keep her technological advances safe from pillagers. As she and Mika made it to the lab, they both had the same thought process as soon as they entered.
‘How in the nine hells are we going to fit everything into our packing material, anyway?’
XxX
Naruto made it to his classroom and opened the door when he saw the first sign that something was wrong with the day as far as he knew it. Inside the room, he saw a bunch of birthday decorations, and he was positive that the room wasn’t supposed to be empty like this....
Suddenly, he felt a hand on his left shoulder, causing him to jump three feet in the air before falling flat on his butt. Looking to his left, he saw it was his instructor, Umino Iruka-sensei. The Chunin-ranked ninja had brown hair and eyes, tanned skin, and a scar across the bridge of his nose.
“Naruto, I’m glad you want to learn more on the Shinobi lifestyle, but don’t you know whose birthday it is today?†Iruka asked like what an older brother would ask his little brother. Seeing Naruto’s confusion, Iruka sighed out of disappointment, before saying, “You know what, forget it. Here’s something to be considered a clue as to what’s going on.â€
Before Naruto could ask what that’s about, Iruka handed him a note written in a girly style of handwriting, which Naruto took before Iruka used the Shunshin no Jutsu to travel away. When Naruto opened the note, he saw what was written inside:
Naruto, please head to the base of the Hokage Monument, where you’ll receive your next set of instructions.
What Naruto was wondering was what this had to do with birthdays, even though he knew that whoever wrote this was hoping for him to follow the instructions. With that, Naruto left the school grounds to get to the base of the Hokage Monument, though he hurried to get to the base of the monument.
Twenty minutes later, Naruto made it to the base of the Hokage Monument, or at least where space was available for people to stand next to it for picture taking. As soon as he stopped a bit to take a breather, he saw something that piqued his curiosity, which was a note on the ground in front of him. Upon moving closer to inspect the note, he felt a strange sensation in his mind that was telling him to grab it and open it, though he was hesitant to do so. It took him awhile to figure out that the note was for him, so he obeyed the sensation and opened the note, which said:
Naruto, you are tasked with finding ten carefully wrapped boxes all throughout Konoha, each one marked in numerical order. Start finding them in backwards numerical order, from “10†to “1â€, and bring each one back to your classroom.
Naruto sighed from annoyance, but he didn’t know if there was a time limit or anything, so he decided to set one for himself. With that in mind, he decided to put the note away, but something caught his eye that his hand had inadvertently covered. When he took a closer look, he read the following:
By the way, the time limit is set for one hour before school closes. Happy hunting.
Naruto paled at the thought that he’d have to miss almost all of his class time, but then he steeled himself, making sure to get these boxes brought to his classroom.
After he put the note away, he rushed to find the boxes, remembering that he saw one on his way to school earlier that day. When he made it to where he saw the box, he realized it was his lucky day, and that the box was marked with a “10†on it. That was when he remembered that the owners of this particular house he was standing in the property of were not the nicest people to him, and that he would be in a lot of trouble if he were caught trespassing in their yard....
“Oh? Uzumaki-san, you’re a bit on the late end right now. What happened?â€
Naruto turned his head to face a retired ninja named Haruno Mebuki, a woman with straight blonde hair and green eyes, and mother of his best friend (though he’d never admit that he was friends with her daughter, under many circumstances that might make Haruno Sakura hate him), as well as one of the owners of the property he was currently on. Before Naruto could utter an apology and leave, Mebuki gestured to the box and said, “You were supposed to get the box, right? You might want to take it before the time limit is up, as the time limit being up would mean that you can’t have a proper celebration today.â€
Naruto, confused by Mebuki’s mannerisms towards him now, walked carefully to the box and picked it up. He was pleasantly surprised when he found that the box wasn’t rigged or anything, so he turned to face Mebuki, only to find that she was gone all of a sudden.
Shivering near-uncontrollably at the thought that Mebuki was actually a ghost, Naruto finally regained control of himself after two minutes of shivering, upon which he went to return to his classroom with the first of the boxes. As he walked to the classroom, he couldn’t help but think that the day was becoming rather strange for some reason or another, considering that most people actually hated him instead of acting like they never did.
Three minutes later, Naruto had found the box labeled “9†in the Academy’s storage shed due to a clue helping him find it, so he put that in the classroom and used the next clue to decide that he had to look for the rest of the boxes around town. He didn’t know where the rest of the boxes would be, but he knew that he had to find the seven before “1†in town, as he already saw the one he was supposed to find last in the Headmaster’s office. With that, he went off to go hunting for the hidden boxes, hoping nothing wrong happened between now and an hour before school closed.
XxX
Inside the Hokage’s office, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage who was supposed to be retired by this point, was waiting for news on Jiraiya’s progress in the novel industry. It seemed like Jiraiya was losing steam in regards to his Icha Icha series of pornographic novels, but Jiraiya never said what sort of books he’d be writing should he ever lose steam on his smut stories, so that was something that Hiruzen was looking forward to.
Then again, Jiraiya could be on his way to deliver his latest spy report, which would be more realistic of him these days. It certainly seemed to be that Jiraiya would never give up on looking for a chance to bring his old friend home somehow, either alive or in a bodybag.
Suddenly, Hiruzen felt a large spike of chakra coming from the middle of the office, which meant someone was activating a huge sealing array for transportation into his sanctuary. He didn’t know who would do this, how they would do it, or why... but he was determined to find out as ANBU took a hidden defensive position around him.
Before he could prepare to fend off any potential attackers, the sealing array flared light in the office and produced a couple of heavy ‘thunk’ sounds, namely the sort of sounds that would come from luggage and some people coming with said luggage. As Hiruzen blinked the light out of his eyes, he started hearing some talking from within the array, which was weird enough as it stood.
“Mistress Natsume, are you sure we’re within the Hokage’s office?†asked what Hiruzen assumed was a young girl that sounded... mechanical, to say the least.
“Positive, Mika, this is the Hokage’s office as according to my calculations,†answered a second girl, one that sounded more human than her companion. “Besides, do you really have that little faith in me for working the teleportation array, or do you just want to be sure we’re in the right place?â€
Once the light died down, Hiruzen gaped at what he saw, considering that it was very unusual for a pair of girls to travel on their own. One of the girls was tanned, had pointed ears, and spiky blue hair and crimson eyes. The other had snow white skin, blonde hair, and green eyes. Their clothes were also gape-worthy, considering that he had never seen anything like them to begin with, as well as the weapons on the back of the blonde girl.
After around a minute of gaping, Hiruzen closed his mouth and asked the girls in a grandfatherly tone, “Would you two girls tell me who you are and where you came from?â€
The two turned to the old man with a tanned face, liver spots on his face, a white goatee, and wearing the robes and cover of his position as Hokage. His aged face reminded the two of a monkey for some reason, but his old brown eyes radiated authority and power, yet there was kindness and compassion sealed within as well. He stood tall for a man of his advanced age and for one who was a little on the short side to begin with, even in his prime, his son Asuma stood a head taller than him.
“My apologies,†the pointed eared one began with a formal bow, “but we are looking for the Lord Hokage, Namikaze Minato.â€
“You would have better luck at a temple to the death god himself,†the Sandaime Hokage informed them, “He has been gone from us for a decade now.â€
Seeing the other girl look over to the older one, the blonde looked inquisitive, before the other began again.
“That is most distressing,†the look on her face did not waver and Hiruzen was reminded heavily of Suna’s puppets, but this was a far more advanced construct, able to think and act it would appear as close to human as possible.
“May I inquire about your reason to seek out my late successor,†Hiruzen made it clear he is the Hokage again, surprising both ladies before him.
He had also phrased it as a demand, not a request; they were intruding upon his office and opening an old wound after all.
“May we inquire about Uzumaki Kushina and her status then?†Hiruzen was taken back; he noted that something made her carefully phrase her question.
“The same,†he stated plainly, “No longer with us either on this plane of reality.â€
“Very well,†the elder construct bowed again, “We hail from the Land of Whirlpool and this is Lady Uzuhara Natsume-hime, last daughter of the Uzuhara Clan, princess and heiress of the Land of Whirlpool.â€
Now the Hokage looked very skeptical, as he knew that name. True she matched the description to the letter, but...
“How did you survive as a child for nigh on thirty years since Whirlpool’s fall?†his eyebrow was raised.
“A sleeping unit of my own creation that would place a person into suspended animation,†Natsume explained, trying to remember how exactly she had ended up in the unit in fact, “I can’t recall the details of my placement though. It feels like a fog or haze blocks my memories or I could have lost them,†she shook her blonde head at that moment, “I can’t recall for the life of me, but then again, I never saw that it was tested beyond only a few months at the time I was placed within, yet I recall that there were cases of some memory loss or distortion, but each very mild and easily recoverable...†she trailed off.
“Yet, if I were to believe you right,†the Hokage took the facts and ran them through his head, trying to remember things in his old age, “You had only limited testing over a period of weeks to a few months, but not years, especially nearly three decades,†he nodded as that would make sense and there, the memory was, “I recall the unit in question, but where was it located in the Uzumaki Compound?†As he was still suspicious of the situation, he purposely lied at the end.
“Then you saw another unit, because I only got three working and two were down for maintenance when I was placed in mine,†Natsume stated clearly and then detailed the exact location and a number of other facets.
“Very well, Uzuhara-hime, I believe you,†Hiruzen shifted to being friendly and open as he indicated for the princess to have a seat along with her construct, “I should have more than likely guessed though,†he indicated Mika, “So you’re Mika. We never crossed paths when I visited before. I must say though, you are as advanced as was claimed by a rather proud father.â€
“Thank you Hokage-dono,†Mika performed a Western ‘curtsy,’ making both believe she was showing off, “Thank you for your time as well.â€
“Nonsense, our nations were allies, it is only natural I would hear you two out,†the Hokage didn’t forgo his usual pipe, the Whirlpool Daimyo was a heavier smoker than he was and Natsume was used to more dangerous smells from her lab, “So why the sudden reappearance? Or rather, sudden awakening?†Hiruzen inquired looking curious.
“Well,†Natsume began with a shrug, “as I said, I cannot remember what happened that had me in the unit in the first place, only my land is in ruins, people gone, and the Ninja Village destroyed and nothing more than when I awoke a few days ago.â€
The old Hokage nodded, before turning his attention to Mika.
“I’m afraid I suffered some damage at the time of the destruction of our land and cannot recall the reason, only the order,†Mika supplied in her mechanical and neutral tone that honestly, grated somewhat on the Hokage’s nerves.
“I see, though I’m hardly surprised,†he knew how Whirlpool fell, but not why, something that still bothered him to this day, though that was then, this is now, “So let’s start by getting to the bottom of why you’re here to begin with and from there, build up,†he indicated to an ANBU who dropped into a kneeling position next to him, “Bring over the papers for citizen registration, we can at least honor that part of our alliance at this time and see to setting up the appropriate guest quarters in the Hokage Mansion for our guests as well until all the paperwork is filed.â€
“That is gracious of you, Hokage-dono,†Natsume bowed to the man in gratitude, feeling very thankful.
“You were a friend of Kushina’s, if I recall correctly, and you are a daughter of an allied nation, even though it is fallen. As such, no less should be prepared for you,†the Hokage remembered the death of his son, Konohamaru’s father, it was painful to say the least and the results of six years ago on Hyuuga Neji could not have been harder to date upon the boy, “You have lost much, I believe. And yet, soon it will arrive full force.†The Hokage stated wisely, he could tell actually from her slightly jerky movements, she had not been awake for a few days, but a few hours.
“I see it was pointless to try and hide it,†Natsume did feel for her family and friends, but she still knew more and was merely able to hold off the feelings she should be feeling about what had become of her nation and people, “I must be strong, so that one day I can restore my nation and return it to glory,†she stated with conviction.
The old Hokage nodded as tea was brought in by a servant. From there, it turned into a question and answer session between him and Natsume. Though while much might not have been happening, Mika was carefully eying the room and noticed something out of place.
A box with the number ‘2’ on it.
“Uh, what are you doing, ma’am?†was suddenly heard by Mika. As she turned sharply to face the door, her preprogrammed ability to detect threats went crazy, even as the Hokage heard the faint voice, his ears still sharp as ever.
XxX
It took Naruto another 55 minutes before he got to the point where he needed to find the box labeled “2â€, which meant that he needed to look all over the village for the elusive one, something that he didn’t know would be so damn tough for him to find. The rest of them were pretty easy to find, though he didn’t know why it was supposed to be this hard for the last one that he was supposed to find, considering that the rest were put in obvious spots for him to see.
Reading the clue in his hand again, Naruto got the brilliant idea to look at the Hokage Mansion for the final box that wasn’t in the Headmaster’s office, so he darted on over to the building, in hopes that he would find what he was looking for. It took him a few minutes to get to the office, but when he got to the office, he found that the secretary was busy listening in on a conversation in the office.
“Uh, what are you doing, ma’am?†Naruto asked a tad bit louder than he should have, causing the room to become silent on the inside.
It was weird to Naruto when he saw the secretary’s face, but when he did, he saw a strange tattoo over her left eye that was certainly out of place. It looked like an apple with two bites out of it and surrounded by a snake with four legs. What was even weirder was that the woman had pure shock on her face, before she switched it out for a nasty snarl, and she released a hidden blade into her hand and prepared to strike Naruto.
Instead though, the door was flung off its hinges straight into her, slamming her away from Naruto as he looked on to see a girl in a green shirt, blue thigh length shorts and a short red skirt standing in the doorway. The girl scanned where the door had impacted the wall, her crimson eyes holding the spot like it was about to blow. In some form of hindsight, that was partially true in another context of the term, but it was lost on the blue haired girl and Naruto.
Two ANBU landed besides Naruto and promptly muscled him in between them as they forced him into the Hokage’s office, the safest place at the moment with four ANBU between the door and the occupants within. A third ANBU, Neko-chan, had walked backwards, keeping Naruto behind her and firmly sandwiched between the ANBU on either side of him. Once he was inside, she would stay with him and the other two would deploy to back up the four other ANBU.
Several Jonin kept on hand for such things, rushed in from their side office, looking ready for a fight.
Then the door fell away and the woman fell unconscious atop the door, some blood against the wall and door, as she dropped bonelessly to the ground without a sound.
“Checking,†a Jonin moved forward carefully after a few moments, looking for any signs of possum playing.
He found none.
Then he checked carefully for weapons, there were a few, mostly hidden knives. To his surprise, she carried not a single kunai on her, but he did find wire, not the ninja kind though, the strength and quality was all wrong. He also noted a lack of shuriken and he was fairly certain after a few more checks, she wasn’t a kunoichi.
For one thing, Naruto wasn’t that good at sneaking up on alert ninja, even one spying for the other side, whichever one it was that day.
He then checked for a pulse. It was there, but faint and weak, no doubt from what happened. He spotted the knife she had drawn on Naruto. It was imbedded in her, but if they got her to a doctor soon, she’ll live.
“Okay, she’s out, bleeding, impaled by her own knife, and ain’t no ninja,†the man shook his head, this was a first, then he spotted the strange tattoo, definitely a first, “Don’t recognize the symbol either.â€
“Right, get her to the docs then,†the Jonin leader stated, glad that ended how it did, if anticlimactic, but hey, that meant everyone was accounted for at the end of the day.
XxX
Within a domed room close to the stars, the image of the ‘secretary’ was being displayed via a holographic projector embedded into the floor, while she was being carried by the shinobi of Konoha to the hospital. The room, while it showed the stars outside, was actually in the upper Stratosphere in the world that it was located in. The building it was located in was considerably high off the ground near the ocean, but mainly because the people living in the building complex were secretive to a dangerous extreme, hoping to control all of humanity to their will.
Still in the domed room, there were twelve people wearing dark brown cloaks with hoods covering their faces, which were used to conceal their identities from each other and the troops they led. The only one that didn’t keep himself concealed was their leader, a man that many knew as Barnabas, though not many knew his intentions. His attire was trim, clean cut, the epitome of business. Worn by the upper crust and whose profession was centered around all things political. He was a businessman and human supremacy and domination was his business.
Around the room, the thirteen people were circled around the hologram, looking mostly in disinterest at what was going on. They knew the exercise of gathering information would be useless for most of their troops, so they had one of the population of their world go to this world to gather the information for them, posing as a member of society in this village so that they could get all the secrets of this world of humans. Of course, they knew better than to send her in with complete knowledge of what she was supposed to do, so they sent her in with no memory of what she had witnessed in their base of operations and no way to control her actions as she was spying on the important people of the village.
This group of thirteen people is the main driving force of Imperium, a Power in the Shadows that seeks to manipulate the very nature of humanity to their exact desires, and to control how the history of mankind would go. Their goal was also to kill certain entities that remain too powerful for them ever since their origins over 10,000 years ago, but it really didn’t matter, considering that they had a whole lot of modifications done to their bodies to allow them to live for all that time.
The first of them to speak, Barnabas, said in an imperialistic tone,
“It would seem that our operative failed in her assigned task. Do we activate the kill switch over her brain?â€
The next one to speak, a woman by the sound of her voice, said,
“I highly doubt that these primitive people could heal her of such an advanced wound to her liver, so what use would it be for her to be killed by the kill switch, dear leader?â€
A round of agreements was heard from around the circle, with all the Inner Circle agreeing to this course of action–
“B’llsh’t. Sorry, something was caught in my throat, something along the lines of how wrong you all are.â€
–All except for one person, the eldest of the Inner Circle by over 1,500 years.
“Explain, Zamuseru Uzukano,†Barnabas ordered the eldest in the Inner Circle. He needed to know what was going on in the head of his most trusted confidante, but most of the time, Zamuseru would remain quiet on topics like this until it was far too late.
“It’s simple, really. Remember my pet project from five millennia ago, the one regarding that ten-tailed demon?†Zamuseru inquired of Barnabas.
“Yes, I remember that pet project, the one where you fused Ki and Zeon into a demonic entity,†Barnabas nodded in remembrance.
“What about it, Zamuseru?â€
“It wound up in that world by complete accident, going around rampaging and all that, before a man that went by the title of Rikkudo Sennin sealed its soul inside himself and put its body into a bunch of rocks that formed the moon of that world.†Zamuseru revealed to everyone else’s surprise. What sort of human could pull that off and live to tell the tale?
“What happened to the man that did that?†Barnabas asked out of curiosity.
Zamuseru replied,
“The man died 30 years after the event, mainly because he was on his deathbed and wanted to split the demon into nine separate parts.†Seeing the looks his way, he said,
“They don’t have actual bodies these days. The only one to have an actual body is the combination of the nine weaker ones, and even that is pushing it with where the body currently is, among other factors.â€
The woman who spoke up earlier decided to ask,
“What does this have to do with why you believe we should use the kill switch? Those primitives don’t look like they know how to heal a papercut, much less a stab to the liver.â€
Zamuseru shook his head with a sigh of giving up the argument, before he said,
“They can heal wounds like that because of their version of magic running through their veins.â€
That got everyone’s attention. Everyone in that world had The Gift? It was hard to believe that something like that happened!
Zamuseru would have continued his explanation of that world, but Barnabas interrupted him,
“Authorize the kill switch.†This order was immediately followed by one of the other members of the Inner Circle, because Barnabas’ word was definitely law in this area, whether anyone were to admit it or not.
Moments later, the hologram showing the woman that was used as an operative flickered off, signifying that the woman went through the kill switch that destroyed her brain to the last atom. As that took care of itself, Barnabas turned to look at the Inner Circle and said,
“Is there anything else that needs to be taken care of this instant?â€
Before the majority of the Inner Circle could shake their heads in the negative, a member that was formed after Zamuseru said to the Inner Circle,
“I have some disturbing news to share. Black Sun has found out about this other world that Zamuseru had mentioned, and is in the process of creating a stronghold in that world.†At the mention of the merchant group that dealt with the supernatural, all the others but Zamuseru and Barnabas felt the urge to palm their faces with a gloved hand. That group was getting too ambitious for their own good, as it appeared, though it didn’t help that half the agents of Black Sun wanted to use the Undead for controlling things.
Barnabas, assessing the situation, said to the Inner Circle,
“As they have made advances in such regard to dominate things they shouldn’t, we have no choice but to crush the group before it can get any more powerful, though we must not make it look like we’re intervening in our world. This is a precarious situation that was probably accounted for by the Beryls and the Shajads we have sought to eliminate, so we must be careful to tread properly, not with the sort of chaos that we’d be accustomed to.â€
That got everyone thinking of ways to end the threat to their order, which was considerably harder because of the precariousness of the situation, as the Lords of Light and Lords of Darkness had made it clear in the treaty not the do anything major to intervene in any sort of crisis. It was a task that they had to deal with immediately, considering what all they were trying to do, which was tough enough in any case.
Many hours would pass as the Inner Circle thought of how to eliminate the Black Sun, but most of the Inner Circle was thinking of ways to do it while increasing their own prestige within the Imperium. None of them knew what sort of traitor one of their own would be, especially not even Barnabas.
After all, he had a dish best served cold called revenge to give to all the Imperium, and this event was one of the many key things that triggered the catalyst for his revenge.
XxX
Xamusel A/N: Well... this is different from the standard Naruto plotlines. Instead of a rehash of canon with different powers and such, the story is being forced onto a different set of rails, forcing everyone to keep from going back to the same old same old.
I’d say more about the story, but I’ll withhold comments for the time being, because I am trying to correct an old habit of mine, one regarding Author Notes being well too long.
In any case, I recommend that you all also check out the side material for this series of stories that will be coming out of my head, what I decided to label as “Code Kyuubi: Side Materials†because I wasn’t feeling very creative about it at the time. In it, you’ll see some extra explanations about the combined settings, like a bestiary of the different monsters that appear out of nowhere to those that don’t know what’s going on, some places in the setting that are not easy to expand upon in-story, and so on.
Thank you for checking out the story so far.
~Xamusel
Yo! Everyone’s favorite Tomcat here. I’m gonna be playing second fiddle and trying to build up my skill level as a result. I’ve hit a rut, sorry to all those I made promises to, but have yet to keep even one. I feel largely trapped in my own mind with so many ideas bouncing around. Hopefully, this practice will help me get back onto my feet and take my skill up a notch.
I’m gonna be the backseater for this story. So expect a lot of the lead to be from Xamusel. He’s got the talent and skill now to largely hold his own without me. I’m just along for the practice and ride.
So let’s see if we can have some fun!
Thanks for showing up and reading up, we hope our aim to please has been met.
Sincerely,
~F-14 Tomcat Lover
“The Big Cat is on the Prowl... So Bee Eaters, start running.â€
---
I'll post the first chapter here when it's completed. Just saying.
Also, I need advice on where to split this up at, because I'm a bit conscientious of word count per chapter... actually, not just the prologue, but the rest of the story as well.
