jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Not 'casual' but there is some pretty freaky Chakra-based tech out there and Orochimaru did canonically do a freaky cell transplant that gave a Shinobi the ability to use Wood Release.
Bootstrapping (Multi-cross, Book 2 - Now in Naruto)
- Thread starter Tersin
- Start date
He had some body snatching shenanigans too, but that's not exactly a common technique so I doubt its part of the plan. Though that does bring up an interesting question. It's explicitly a form of soul displacement, trying that on Erika seems like it'd be a wee bit more involved than usual.
Hyuga also took the step of sealing branch family members so people couldn't steal their secrets as easily, and Konoha (and Kiri)(at the least, likely everyone) had ninja who's job it was to fetch corpses of their fallen for information security reasons, so its likely there are things about techniques and bloodlines to be learned from a body, or they wouldn't bother.
- Location
- Logan, Queensland, australia
Yeah, no offence to the author - but given her tools, abilities and experiences up to this point, Ericka's responses to the scenario don't make any sense, unless she's just suddenly become 'that arrogant', which is OCC for her. Usually, just feeling off, has been enough for her to react, in the past.
The fact that she just sat there going, 'I'm feeling weird. I'm attending a meal with a known enemy - but I checked everything and I couldn't have possibly missed anything - on account of I'm just that awesome - so I'm going to ignore the fact that I'm feeling odd and it's getting worse, because I can't possibly have made a mistake!' just doesn't fit the character as written to this point.
In the past, just the fact that she feels something - despite her physical enhancements that rule out any ordinary problem - would have been enough to make her leave and to hell with the repercussions.
The situation feels contrived. Sorry
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xbox432
Lover of Editing
Just an idle thought I had while rereading the chapter... But I can't remember what description you gave for Erica's looks anymore. Now that I'm looking back on my thoughts of the story, even going back to when she was in DxD, I've had this mental image of her in my head where she looks like Bazett Fraga McRemitzzet from the various Fate franchises.
And I just can't help but wonder if anyone else has been thinking something similar? Or, well, what image of Erica do the rest of you have?
And I just can't help but wonder if anyone else has been thinking something similar? Or, well, what image of Erica do the rest of you have?
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
There is some fanart of her over on the SB thread. I'm given to understand this is a fairly good depiction of her.
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- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
What is it with spoiled people who mistake "no, because I can't" for "no, because I don't want to"?
There's enough weird medical/magical experimentation in Naruto to suggest that they might still extract useful information from her body, or even corpse if necessary. Things like Sharingan being transplantable, the Hyuga sealing branch family members to prevent capturing them being useful, ninja who's job it is to retrieve the bodies of the fallen for security reasons.
Breeding a new bloodline is probably the preferred method, but its also likely only Plan A.
This'll be complicated by the origins of most of her abilities, but nobody knows that.
Prepared Enemies
- Location
- California
"Alright, you've had a few hours to work on the subject. Give me a preliminary report." I don't know that voice... Where am I?
What happened?
I remember... a house rocking?
"You want an initial report? Fine. Nothing works." Don't know that voice either.
"Explain," the first voice states rather than asks. The fuzz in my head is beginning to fade.
There's a deep sigh, "We can't get a blood sample. When we try, the needle melts."
Start at the beginning.
I remember Miku getting me all dressed up.
"We can't give her an intravenous drip of the sedative the Lord got us for the same reason," a third voice says with a certain amount of sarcasm.
I remember the palanquin arriving at the manor.
"We managed to get a sample via a cheek swab, and tried to do a DNA culture. That didn't work." The voices are sounding frustrated now. Something that makes me feel a little maliciously happy.
I remember nothing after arriving at the manor, though.
"What do you mean it didn't work?" the first voice demands.
"Exactly what I said. It didn't work, the DNA wouldn't propagate."
"Why?! That's what DNA is supposed to do. Propagate." The first voice is sounding more than a little desperate now.
"No clue. Just didn't work."
"It just didn't...!" There's the sound of a deep breath, before the first voice starts speaking again somewhat more calmly, "Okay... Okay. What about the machines we got from that ninja bloodline lunatic?"
"We took another swab and used the machine as instructed to test viability for cloning..." A fourth voice now trails off, this one sounding nervous.
"And?" the first voice demands.
"And either the machines aren't as good as advertised, or she can't be cloned."
"What did the machines say about why?"
"Nothing. Just an error message and that the sample couldn't be cloned." The third voice is going from nervous rapidly towards frustrated and angry. "No clue what the error message means, it's not in the manual we got."
"All right," another calming breath for voice one, "we have time. Precautions have been taken, and I've been assured that this won't be traced back to us. So keep her sedated via inhalation..." There's an ominous pause. "What?"
"It's just..." voice four again, "the container the drug is stored in has been sabotaged."
"By what?" voice one demands.
"I don't know," voice four replies again with an audible shrug, "The storage room went into emergency lockdown and air purge. By the time it finished all we found was the container ripped open by four parallel slashes, and the drug having leaked all over the floor. Useless in that state."
"Fuck," voice one murmurs quietly. "Fine, what about her biology? Would something normal work on her if we don't need it to do all the other things the custom sedative did?"
"Well, I have no idea what her bones or muscles are," voice three answered, "but the rest of her is pretty much standard human. So anything that works on normal people should work on her as long as it doesn't set off that regeneration. Which is, unfortunately, the real problem. We can't inject her with anything, and we're a little short on inhaled sedatives."
"Right," voice one says with gritted teeth. "Put an emergency order into the storehouse for more. The dose she got ought to keep her out for the rest of the day, at least. That'll be enough time for the order to get here. In the meantime, keep working on her. Any luck on the analysis of her genetics?"
"Not yet," voice two says, "That'll take time, a few more days at best, more likely a couple of weeks."
"Fine. Keep on it."
"Sir?" voice three asks, "I don't suppose there's any good news? Like, have they gotten that sword out of the dining room yet?"
Voice one snorts, "No, but they have lost three people trying."
I grin.
Good sword.
I'm not sure how long I lay still on the table waiting for the last of the drug to clear my brain. I get one visitor in that time, smells female, late thirties early forties, and otherwise like rubber and antiseptic. I think this is voice two, or at least she takes another cheek swab.
I'm a little surprised that that kind of technology exists in Naruto. Though given the kind of shit that Orochimaru is supposed to be able to pull off, either right now or in the not too distant future, it's not that unreasonable.
Which reminds me, I wonder what ninja bloodline nut they bought their equipment from?
My mind being able to notice this sort of thing, and able to try and figure out the answer, probably means I'm good to go.
I manage to hold still and not give myself away to my visitor. I keep from tensing anything, or my heart rate from spiking, by setting a record at getting into a meditative trance. But she finishes and leaves, closing a door that sounds heavy and solid, and locking it behind her.
Then, at last, I open my eyes to look around my room. It's dim, lit only by various blinking lights on the medical equipment arranged around me. The low light doesn't give me any trouble though. The room itself is a solid stone box, probably pretty thick too. It had to be made by earth jutsu, because I can't see a single seam or crack in the walls or ceiling.
Craning my head down to take a look at myself I find several things I don't like. One, I'm naked, which I object to on principle, more so given who would have likely done the undressing. Second, the table I'm on looks and smells like solid chakra metal, and I'm not so much chained to it as my hands and feet are completely covered by several inch thick metal mittens and boots locked to the table. I try briefly to test my strength against them and find there's no flex or give at all. Bumping my head against the table gently to try and get enough noise to try and get an image of how the table is put together...
My thoughts are interrupted by a nearly silent thump as something lands on my table. Looking down again I find myself looking at a slightly over-large housecat, dressed in stealth gear. His whiskers are pressed forward in a feline smile, and one paw is pressed against his muzzle to indicate that I should stay quiet.
The other paw is holding a ring of keys.
I grin back at him.
He swiftly gets me loose and I hop off the table, staggering as the world seems to roll around me, but moments later things have steadied. I start going through my morning stretching routine. Troll joints are many things, but flexible isn't one of them. I have to work damn hard to keep even a slightly above average flexibility. Having spent however long unconscious and strapped to a very hard table didn't help.
While I'm doing that I look at my rescuer, "We can go over what the hell happened later. First we get out of here. What's that look like?"
The cat bowed. "Princess... It could look better. You're in the third sub-basement under the manor. There are four in total. The first is a normal basement. A secret door behind a wine rack-" I snort at that cliche which gets me a nod from the cat, but he doesn't pause speaking, "-leads to the second basement. This one is set up as a barracks. A big one, though largely empty by the time we came through. Third is this one, it's set up as a medical research lab geared towards genetics and, from what we've overheard, cloning. Fourth is storage, both for equipment, weapons and armor, and various chemicals needed for the lab. Most of the weapons and armor are gone. There are four researchers on this floor, about ten samurai above us, and about a hundred on the estate in total.
That last number made my brain grind to a halt.
A hundred samurai on the estate? Why the hell were a hundred samurai here? Hell, where had he gotten them from? If he'd stripped every known samurai supporter of his faction from their holdings and brought them all here, that's maybe three quarters of them. Half at the very best. As much as they tried, they typically only succeeded at recruiting samurai straight out of training, and only if the samurai in question is already attached to one of the noble families in the faction. Some additional few who felt attached to friends going that way...
Unless I missed something, which is entirely possible I'll admit, they just don't have the samurai to put a hundred on guard duty like this and accomplish anything else at the same time.
And guard duty against what?
Not me certainly. They thought they had me sedated with plenty of time to drug me again. Not to mention they had me tied down pretty well. I'm honestly not sure how I would have gotten free of that table if my cat hadn't brought the keys.
So what the hell else is going on?
Not important right now, focus on the moment.
First verify. "A hundred?" I squeak out.
The can nods, "Yes, Princess. I admit we were confused and concerned about the number as well."
Well, shit.
The ten one floor up were already going to be a problem. Assuming that these samurai are trained to at least the standard of the academy... Actually I could check that.
"What's your assessment of how good they are?" I ask the cat.
He seems to think about it for a long moment before answering. "Not rookies fresh out of the academy. Assuming the ones in the barracks are at least as good as the ones patrolling the rest of the manor... Good. Not as good as you, Princess, but above average."
Damn. I could beat several samurai at once in a straight fight, just from sheer skill. With my powers involved, both my new elemental ones and my telekinesis and voice, the number goes up. But ten solidly competent samurai isn't something I'd want to tackle without backup. And that is assuming bog standard samurai, not ones that also used jutsu. Also that I'm equally equipped, not naked.
Topping all the bad news off, I'm very low on mana. When I'd left for the dinner, I'd been about half full. It's the best compromise between having enough mana to use, and having enough room that Sclamhare doesn't make me explode immediately. Now I'm running on... well far less. I have no idea where the rest of that mana went, and I'm not sure I really want to know.
Maybe another option...? "Can you sneak me out?"
"No, Princess. If we could, you would not have awakened here," the cat says a little sadly. "We entered via the air vents, but while we can fit, they're far too small for you or humans."
Damn. "Recommendations?" on the off chance that there's still enough of the drug in my system to make me miss something obvious.
"Unfortunately, Princess, it's our judgment that we have little choice but to fight our way out."
Crap. I'm not sure this is possible for me to do. A hundred likely jutsu using samurai. The knowledge that drugs had taken me down twice now, and that I'm at the bottom of the stronghold of somebody that had already beaten me once...
Some part of me really wanted to just barricade the door and send the cats for help. There's too much of this that doesn't make sense, though. And if they check the door before help arrives they'll likely be able to force it open, and then I'm screwed.
"Can you warn the rest of the team we're coming out hot?"
"Yes, Princess." He bares his teeth at the door and does something that pulses through the ambient mana, but the chakra portion of that mana doesn't so much as ripple, instead the... flavor seems to change.
Well not really, but I can't come up with a better way to describe it.
My cat flicks his tail in a manner that equates to a nod.
I take a deep breath and flood my skin with earth aspected mana, hardening my skin like stone. With a pull on my soul, I feel a missing piece return to me. Then with another pull Sclamhaire erupts back into existence in my hand.
With my body as reinforced as I can make it, I cut through the hinges and the lock on the door.
Then kick it as hard as I can.
The researchers go down easily. I'd feel bad about killing them... but they'd been willing to experiment on a naked unconscious girl, who was obviously being held against her will. Also I need the mana. Two of them are enough to fill me up, which might not have been the best idea, since I'm lacking my pressure valve.
Worth the risk though.
Once the researchers are dead, the cat and I head for the stairs. I'd steal clothes from one of the researchers, but the first fire jutsu would leave me naked again, so I really don't see much of a point until I can have some reasonable expectation that the clothes will last more than a few minutes.
Besides, maybe somebody will be distracted.
I move up the stairs slowly. There's every chance that one of the ten samurai that are supposed to be up here heard something from down below, and are waiting for me.
My caution turns out to be warranted. Listening hard, I map the room. It's a large open space that is usually probably filled with beds in a standard open barracks arrangement. Right now the beds are all pushed to the walls of the room opening up the center into a large arena. There are two other doorways in the room, one at the opposite side, and the other in the right wall. Given what I can smell from that direction it's probably a kitchen of some sort.
Standing not too far away from the doorway I'm lingering in are the ten samurai. They're not moving and there's really no source of noise loud or regular enough to let me pick up any details from them.
With a sigh I peak my head through the door and immediately jerk back as a solid metal samurai arrow nearly takes my eye out. The ten of them are in full armor, bows out and ready to fire.
All right. I can deal with that.
I take a deep breath, funnel mana into my throat, and then kick open the door. Immediately nine arrows are in the air and rushing towards me at the same time I let out a pulse of low frequency sound, resulting in a shockwave traveling back towards the arrows.
Solid metal moving at that speed isn't that easy to shift, as it turns out. I knock one arrow out away from my face, while most of the rest shift course enough to miss me. Two, though, do not. One scrapes along my ribs, scoring stone hard skin instead of ripping it open completely. The other, though, slams into and then through my thigh, the arrow head emerging dripping blood from the back of my leg. The blood burns away before it hits the ground, and at the same time blue white fire erupts around the arrow. The metal shaft quickly turns red hot, then melts out of the wound. The wound itself vanishes the moment the last bit of foreign substance is out of the way.
Through it all I don't break stride. It hurts like hell, but pain is easier to ignore when you know it's not permanent. The shock wave I'd sent on ahead hits the samurai scattering them like bowling pins.
They take the unexpected impact well though, all of them quickly rolling to their feet and drawing new arrows while falling back. I try to deal with the next volley with my TK, but I can only focus that on one target at a time. It works much better on that one target than my voice though.
I take several more wounds that vanish almost immediately, but it's starting to seem like a worrying trend.
They prepare a third volley, retreating with the speed I've come to expect from samurai and ninja alike. Stopping the arrows seems to be a non-starter, so what about the shooters?
I take a deep breath again, ready to simply scream and see what kind of damage I can do, when one of the samurai in the back drops their bow and steps forward. I scream as they make several hand signs as they step in front of their fellows and clap their hands just as I scream.
A clap of thunder fills the room even as my scream cracks the floor in front of me. The two sonic attacks meet in between the two of us, and while the level of noise is painful, my scream is disrupted enough that the samurai can avoid damage.
God damn chakra bullshit! Physics doesn't work that way! But clearly physics has nothing to do with what's going on right now.
My cat rescuer drops from the ceiling onto the jutsu using samurai's helmet. Between one moment and the next his claws rip through the samurai's gorget spilling blood down his breastplate. Before his victim can even begin to fall, let alone the other samurai react to his presence, the cat leaps free of the samurai's formation, vanishing under one of the cots pushed to the edges of the room.
Through it all they continue to fall back towards the doorway on the far side of the room, continuing to fill the air with arrows.
I deflect what arrows I can, but too many are coming at once for me to get them all. I'm really wishing that I'd spent the time to learn at least the physical part of the Jutsu deflection technique. Even if I couldn't do the metaphysical part that would let me bounce fireballs, the physical part would at least help me deal with all these arrows.
Clearly somebody has spent some time figuring out how to fight me specifically and to my frustration, without my armor, it's working. As far as I can tell there's only two ways around my regeneration. The first is to wear me down enough that I run out of mana to keep putting myself back together. The second is to simply obliterate enough of my body in a single go that there isn't enough left to hold the mana to repair that level of damage. I don't know it for a fact, but I suspect that there's a level of bodily destruction that will simply not leave enough of myself for my regeneration to restore me.
The samurai are trying the first way. They stick to range, fall back as fast as I can advance under the withering hail of arrows that I have to defend myself from. I manage to take one down using my TK, launching him towards me so I can get Sclamhaire into him. Before he can reach me, though, one of his fellows puts an arrow through his neck so he's nearly dead by the time he gets to me. The mana I get is miniscule compared to what I'm spending.
I don't know what theory they've developed about how my powers work, but whatever it is it's close enough to the truth for them to have found ways around it. The pattern continues out of the barracks, through the storage room of the basement where my feline escort gets three more of them in the cluttered environment, and into the main house. I take arrows to my stomach, chest, and legs, one even bounces off my head, my troll bone skull the only thing that saves me. Each of them is quickly melted out of my body and healed, but each also consumes more mana. My stone skin technique obviously needs more work. Shots that would hit obliquely enough to simply tear me open, instead only scrape along my hardened flesh, but any direct hit will still punch through.
The samurai turn and sprint up the stairs to the main house when they reach them, and I run after them, finally not being hampered by their constant volleys of arrows. My cat follows me up the stairs, abandoning stealth in favor of keeping up. The stairway ends in a right-angled turn that I almost slide around in my rush, and I have only a moment to take in what I see.
A long hallway, no turns, cover, or other exits except the far end of the hallway. At the far end stand several ranks of samurai, that the ones I've been chasing quickly slip through the ranks of. But most importantly, a wall of arrows and jutsu is taking up the entirety of the hallway.
I have a bare moment to react, and working on instinct, as I don't have time to really think about anything, I jump. I leap up and slightly to the side away from the door I just came through. My body almost spins in the air as I assume a horizontal position in the air just in time for the wall of destruction to hit me.
The sole fire jutsu in the lot envelopes me with a comforting warmth for a split second, while the rest of the barrage slips around me. Then I belly flop to the ground with a grunt, and quickly roll across the ground back to the door, taking cover in the stairwell.
My eyes are wide and I'm breathing hard.
That... was very close.
My mana is rather low after the far too effective fighting retreat I'd just chased into this ambush. The fire never would have hurt me, but any of the other jutsu? Or the arrows? Those might have done me in. I didn't even have the time to pull through Sclamhaire to get more than what little bits of the fire touched her directly. Also known as not enough to matter.
Note to self, it's hard to spot people that are holding still and not using chakra through people that are.
So what the hell am I going to do now?
For several long moments that feel like forever, all I can do is sit and catch my breath. Once I'm breathing normally again, I stick my head around the corner about half-way between the floor and my standing height.
I still nearly take an arrow to the forehead. I manage to get a look, though. It's about what I remember seeing the first time. I couldn't get a good count of how many there are, packed together like they are. There's also a shimmer in the air around them, very faint. I wonder what I'm supposed to be seeing that I'm not.
I glance down at the cat who's been accompanying me. "Any ideas?"
He pushes his whiskers forward in a feline smile and bares his teeth, "Just wait, Princess."
I raise an eyebrow, but he only smiles harder. So with a shrug, I wait.
Only moments later my patience is rewarded. The sounds of combat erupt from around the corner. I can hear five or so small furry bodies moving swiftly between the men blocking the corridor.
I smile as I dart around the corner, my feline escort close on my heels. The back ranks of the opposing samurai are in chaos, but how well trained they are shows in that it's only the back ranks. The front keep their focus on the hallway, trusting their comrades to guard their backs from the unexpected attack. Worse, the samurai in the front have abandoned jutsu and pulled their bows.
I'm ridiculously fast, especially with my physical enhancement technique running, but I'm not supersonic arrow fast. That's the entire point of the things, a ranged weapon that moves fast enough that the ninja can't just dodge or block. I'm low on mana, very low, the amount of healing I've been doing with only a minimal amount of recovery has me running on fumes. The chakra metal arrows will do a lot of damage, and if they end up stuck in me I'll have the choice of pulling them out, and causing more damage to heal, or leaving them for my regeneration to deal with, which will cost more mana still.
I could duck back around the corner, get behind cover. I'm about to be turned into a pincushion, and I'm still fighting naked. Or I can try to close with them fast enough to make their bows irrelevant. Or at least get enough of a piece of one to heal the damage I take getting to them.
...
Fuck it. I'm getting out of this place.
The corridor is too narrow for my wings, so with a thought I telekinetically launch myself down the corridor. A moment later I slam myself to a halt, Sclamhaire cutting down at the samurai in front of me. The man's reflexes are impressive, he yanks his bow up as I stop and for a moment the world seems to slow. A samurai arrow is pointed right between my breasts, and at this distance the arrow will go right through me, troll bone or no. Of course, Sclamhaire is already descending on him. If I get there first, I'll be fine. If he releases the arrow first, I likely won't have the strength to heal, or complete the swing in a manner that'll help.
So I just have to swing faster.
I grit my teeth and commit...
And something clicks deep inside me, like a last puzzle piece finally fitting into place.
The world speeds up again, my vision is blocked by a shifting mass of black mist and shadow. The thrum of a bowstring reaches my ears along with an unexpected rush of mana, and a moment later Sclamhaire carves through the samurai, armor and all, giving me yet more mana.
My vision clears, and weight settles around my body. I take a deep breath, and can't help but smile. I feel complete in a way that I haven't felt in so long that I didn't even notice the missing pieces any more. I glance down and my smile widens as I find myself clad in my armor again.
I can't help myself, I start to laugh.
Then, without stopping, I carve into the samurai trying to hold me, my laughter accompanied by the furious yowling of angry cats.
The samurai that had been left to guard me had obviously been trained in a method of fighting me specifically. I have no idea what bits and pieces were observed of me fighting to give away the weaknesses that they exploited, but it doesn't matter now, my armor changes the equation entirely. My cats and I sweep through the internal guard stations of the manor almost without slowing down.
Almost.
I can't forget that a preset trap has already taken me down once, and I take my time to make sure that I don't wander into another one. Soon enough, though, we run out of enemies inside the building, and take the opportunity to catch our breaths.
"So what do we do now?" one of the cats asks.
"There are plenty more troops," the ocelot in charge tells me. "When it became clear that they weren't stopping us they fell back to the front and back courtyards. The only ways out of the house would take you right into the two largest concentrations of samurai left. More in one place than we've faced all together so far."
I consider for a moment, then blink. "They've all gathered at the front and back of the house? Nobody is watching the sides?"
The ocelot shrugs, "The only ways out through the walls are the front and back."
"Yeah... I don't really feel like fighting them on our own." That many samurai in the open would be a problem even with my armor. And these cats aren't really made for a stand up fight. They'll have to be dealt with, but not right now, and not necessarily by me. "Is there a second floor or higher window that they won't be able to see from where they've rallied?"
The ocelot grins, "I might know one or two."
Minutes later we leap from a third story window over the outer wall of the compound with a beat of my wings, and escape into the city. The city, though, is not what I expected. I can smell smoke in the air and see fires in the distance. I can hear the sounds of fighting from all over the city, but especially from the direction of the Daimyo's palace.
How the hell did this happen? When did the troops get into the city? There's no sign of fighting on the walls. And where did they come from? I don't know the exact numbers, but there's no way the pro-ninja faction could have gathered enough people from Iron to try something like this without somebody noticing.
And last I'd heard, a few hours ago from what I understand, the faction was dangerous politically, but showed no signs of becoming a military threat. Or even signs of trying to become a military threat. So how did this happen?
Just...
"What the hell is going on?"
What happened?
I remember... a house rocking?
"You want an initial report? Fine. Nothing works." Don't know that voice either.
"Explain," the first voice states rather than asks. The fuzz in my head is beginning to fade.
There's a deep sigh, "We can't get a blood sample. When we try, the needle melts."
Start at the beginning.
I remember Miku getting me all dressed up.
"We can't give her an intravenous drip of the sedative the Lord got us for the same reason," a third voice says with a certain amount of sarcasm.
I remember the palanquin arriving at the manor.
"We managed to get a sample via a cheek swab, and tried to do a DNA culture. That didn't work." The voices are sounding frustrated now. Something that makes me feel a little maliciously happy.
I remember nothing after arriving at the manor, though.
"What do you mean it didn't work?" the first voice demands.
"Exactly what I said. It didn't work, the DNA wouldn't propagate."
"Why?! That's what DNA is supposed to do. Propagate." The first voice is sounding more than a little desperate now.
"No clue. Just didn't work."
"It just didn't...!" There's the sound of a deep breath, before the first voice starts speaking again somewhat more calmly, "Okay... Okay. What about the machines we got from that ninja bloodline lunatic?"
"We took another swab and used the machine as instructed to test viability for cloning..." A fourth voice now trails off, this one sounding nervous.
"And?" the first voice demands.
"And either the machines aren't as good as advertised, or she can't be cloned."
"What did the machines say about why?"
"Nothing. Just an error message and that the sample couldn't be cloned." The third voice is going from nervous rapidly towards frustrated and angry. "No clue what the error message means, it's not in the manual we got."
"All right," another calming breath for voice one, "we have time. Precautions have been taken, and I've been assured that this won't be traced back to us. So keep her sedated via inhalation..." There's an ominous pause. "What?"
"It's just..." voice four again, "the container the drug is stored in has been sabotaged."
"By what?" voice one demands.
"I don't know," voice four replies again with an audible shrug, "The storage room went into emergency lockdown and air purge. By the time it finished all we found was the container ripped open by four parallel slashes, and the drug having leaked all over the floor. Useless in that state."
"Fuck," voice one murmurs quietly. "Fine, what about her biology? Would something normal work on her if we don't need it to do all the other things the custom sedative did?"
"Well, I have no idea what her bones or muscles are," voice three answered, "but the rest of her is pretty much standard human. So anything that works on normal people should work on her as long as it doesn't set off that regeneration. Which is, unfortunately, the real problem. We can't inject her with anything, and we're a little short on inhaled sedatives."
"Right," voice one says with gritted teeth. "Put an emergency order into the storehouse for more. The dose she got ought to keep her out for the rest of the day, at least. That'll be enough time for the order to get here. In the meantime, keep working on her. Any luck on the analysis of her genetics?"
"Not yet," voice two says, "That'll take time, a few more days at best, more likely a couple of weeks."
"Fine. Keep on it."
"Sir?" voice three asks, "I don't suppose there's any good news? Like, have they gotten that sword out of the dining room yet?"
Voice one snorts, "No, but they have lost three people trying."
I grin.
Good sword.
###
I'm not sure how long I lay still on the table waiting for the last of the drug to clear my brain. I get one visitor in that time, smells female, late thirties early forties, and otherwise like rubber and antiseptic. I think this is voice two, or at least she takes another cheek swab.
I'm a little surprised that that kind of technology exists in Naruto. Though given the kind of shit that Orochimaru is supposed to be able to pull off, either right now or in the not too distant future, it's not that unreasonable.
Which reminds me, I wonder what ninja bloodline nut they bought their equipment from?
My mind being able to notice this sort of thing, and able to try and figure out the answer, probably means I'm good to go.
I manage to hold still and not give myself away to my visitor. I keep from tensing anything, or my heart rate from spiking, by setting a record at getting into a meditative trance. But she finishes and leaves, closing a door that sounds heavy and solid, and locking it behind her.
Then, at last, I open my eyes to look around my room. It's dim, lit only by various blinking lights on the medical equipment arranged around me. The low light doesn't give me any trouble though. The room itself is a solid stone box, probably pretty thick too. It had to be made by earth jutsu, because I can't see a single seam or crack in the walls or ceiling.
Craning my head down to take a look at myself I find several things I don't like. One, I'm naked, which I object to on principle, more so given who would have likely done the undressing. Second, the table I'm on looks and smells like solid chakra metal, and I'm not so much chained to it as my hands and feet are completely covered by several inch thick metal mittens and boots locked to the table. I try briefly to test my strength against them and find there's no flex or give at all. Bumping my head against the table gently to try and get enough noise to try and get an image of how the table is put together...
My thoughts are interrupted by a nearly silent thump as something lands on my table. Looking down again I find myself looking at a slightly over-large housecat, dressed in stealth gear. His whiskers are pressed forward in a feline smile, and one paw is pressed against his muzzle to indicate that I should stay quiet.
The other paw is holding a ring of keys.
I grin back at him.
He swiftly gets me loose and I hop off the table, staggering as the world seems to roll around me, but moments later things have steadied. I start going through my morning stretching routine. Troll joints are many things, but flexible isn't one of them. I have to work damn hard to keep even a slightly above average flexibility. Having spent however long unconscious and strapped to a very hard table didn't help.
While I'm doing that I look at my rescuer, "We can go over what the hell happened later. First we get out of here. What's that look like?"
The cat bowed. "Princess... It could look better. You're in the third sub-basement under the manor. There are four in total. The first is a normal basement. A secret door behind a wine rack-" I snort at that cliche which gets me a nod from the cat, but he doesn't pause speaking, "-leads to the second basement. This one is set up as a barracks. A big one, though largely empty by the time we came through. Third is this one, it's set up as a medical research lab geared towards genetics and, from what we've overheard, cloning. Fourth is storage, both for equipment, weapons and armor, and various chemicals needed for the lab. Most of the weapons and armor are gone. There are four researchers on this floor, about ten samurai above us, and about a hundred on the estate in total.
That last number made my brain grind to a halt.
A hundred samurai on the estate? Why the hell were a hundred samurai here? Hell, where had he gotten them from? If he'd stripped every known samurai supporter of his faction from their holdings and brought them all here, that's maybe three quarters of them. Half at the very best. As much as they tried, they typically only succeeded at recruiting samurai straight out of training, and only if the samurai in question is already attached to one of the noble families in the faction. Some additional few who felt attached to friends going that way...
Unless I missed something, which is entirely possible I'll admit, they just don't have the samurai to put a hundred on guard duty like this and accomplish anything else at the same time.
And guard duty against what?
Not me certainly. They thought they had me sedated with plenty of time to drug me again. Not to mention they had me tied down pretty well. I'm honestly not sure how I would have gotten free of that table if my cat hadn't brought the keys.
So what the hell else is going on?
Not important right now, focus on the moment.
First verify. "A hundred?" I squeak out.
The can nods, "Yes, Princess. I admit we were confused and concerned about the number as well."
Well, shit.
The ten one floor up were already going to be a problem. Assuming that these samurai are trained to at least the standard of the academy... Actually I could check that.
"What's your assessment of how good they are?" I ask the cat.
He seems to think about it for a long moment before answering. "Not rookies fresh out of the academy. Assuming the ones in the barracks are at least as good as the ones patrolling the rest of the manor... Good. Not as good as you, Princess, but above average."
Damn. I could beat several samurai at once in a straight fight, just from sheer skill. With my powers involved, both my new elemental ones and my telekinesis and voice, the number goes up. But ten solidly competent samurai isn't something I'd want to tackle without backup. And that is assuming bog standard samurai, not ones that also used jutsu. Also that I'm equally equipped, not naked.
Topping all the bad news off, I'm very low on mana. When I'd left for the dinner, I'd been about half full. It's the best compromise between having enough mana to use, and having enough room that Sclamhare doesn't make me explode immediately. Now I'm running on... well far less. I have no idea where the rest of that mana went, and I'm not sure I really want to know.
Maybe another option...? "Can you sneak me out?"
"No, Princess. If we could, you would not have awakened here," the cat says a little sadly. "We entered via the air vents, but while we can fit, they're far too small for you or humans."
Damn. "Recommendations?" on the off chance that there's still enough of the drug in my system to make me miss something obvious.
"Unfortunately, Princess, it's our judgment that we have little choice but to fight our way out."
Crap. I'm not sure this is possible for me to do. A hundred likely jutsu using samurai. The knowledge that drugs had taken me down twice now, and that I'm at the bottom of the stronghold of somebody that had already beaten me once...
Some part of me really wanted to just barricade the door and send the cats for help. There's too much of this that doesn't make sense, though. And if they check the door before help arrives they'll likely be able to force it open, and then I'm screwed.
"Can you warn the rest of the team we're coming out hot?"
"Yes, Princess." He bares his teeth at the door and does something that pulses through the ambient mana, but the chakra portion of that mana doesn't so much as ripple, instead the... flavor seems to change.
Well not really, but I can't come up with a better way to describe it.
My cat flicks his tail in a manner that equates to a nod.
I take a deep breath and flood my skin with earth aspected mana, hardening my skin like stone. With a pull on my soul, I feel a missing piece return to me. Then with another pull Sclamhaire erupts back into existence in my hand.
With my body as reinforced as I can make it, I cut through the hinges and the lock on the door.
Then kick it as hard as I can.
###
The researchers go down easily. I'd feel bad about killing them... but they'd been willing to experiment on a naked unconscious girl, who was obviously being held against her will. Also I need the mana. Two of them are enough to fill me up, which might not have been the best idea, since I'm lacking my pressure valve.
Worth the risk though.
Once the researchers are dead, the cat and I head for the stairs. I'd steal clothes from one of the researchers, but the first fire jutsu would leave me naked again, so I really don't see much of a point until I can have some reasonable expectation that the clothes will last more than a few minutes.
Besides, maybe somebody will be distracted.
I move up the stairs slowly. There's every chance that one of the ten samurai that are supposed to be up here heard something from down below, and are waiting for me.
My caution turns out to be warranted. Listening hard, I map the room. It's a large open space that is usually probably filled with beds in a standard open barracks arrangement. Right now the beds are all pushed to the walls of the room opening up the center into a large arena. There are two other doorways in the room, one at the opposite side, and the other in the right wall. Given what I can smell from that direction it's probably a kitchen of some sort.
Standing not too far away from the doorway I'm lingering in are the ten samurai. They're not moving and there's really no source of noise loud or regular enough to let me pick up any details from them.
With a sigh I peak my head through the door and immediately jerk back as a solid metal samurai arrow nearly takes my eye out. The ten of them are in full armor, bows out and ready to fire.
All right. I can deal with that.
I take a deep breath, funnel mana into my throat, and then kick open the door. Immediately nine arrows are in the air and rushing towards me at the same time I let out a pulse of low frequency sound, resulting in a shockwave traveling back towards the arrows.
Solid metal moving at that speed isn't that easy to shift, as it turns out. I knock one arrow out away from my face, while most of the rest shift course enough to miss me. Two, though, do not. One scrapes along my ribs, scoring stone hard skin instead of ripping it open completely. The other, though, slams into and then through my thigh, the arrow head emerging dripping blood from the back of my leg. The blood burns away before it hits the ground, and at the same time blue white fire erupts around the arrow. The metal shaft quickly turns red hot, then melts out of the wound. The wound itself vanishes the moment the last bit of foreign substance is out of the way.
Through it all I don't break stride. It hurts like hell, but pain is easier to ignore when you know it's not permanent. The shock wave I'd sent on ahead hits the samurai scattering them like bowling pins.
They take the unexpected impact well though, all of them quickly rolling to their feet and drawing new arrows while falling back. I try to deal with the next volley with my TK, but I can only focus that on one target at a time. It works much better on that one target than my voice though.
I take several more wounds that vanish almost immediately, but it's starting to seem like a worrying trend.
They prepare a third volley, retreating with the speed I've come to expect from samurai and ninja alike. Stopping the arrows seems to be a non-starter, so what about the shooters?
I take a deep breath again, ready to simply scream and see what kind of damage I can do, when one of the samurai in the back drops their bow and steps forward. I scream as they make several hand signs as they step in front of their fellows and clap their hands just as I scream.
A clap of thunder fills the room even as my scream cracks the floor in front of me. The two sonic attacks meet in between the two of us, and while the level of noise is painful, my scream is disrupted enough that the samurai can avoid damage.
God damn chakra bullshit! Physics doesn't work that way! But clearly physics has nothing to do with what's going on right now.
My cat rescuer drops from the ceiling onto the jutsu using samurai's helmet. Between one moment and the next his claws rip through the samurai's gorget spilling blood down his breastplate. Before his victim can even begin to fall, let alone the other samurai react to his presence, the cat leaps free of the samurai's formation, vanishing under one of the cots pushed to the edges of the room.
Through it all they continue to fall back towards the doorway on the far side of the room, continuing to fill the air with arrows.
I deflect what arrows I can, but too many are coming at once for me to get them all. I'm really wishing that I'd spent the time to learn at least the physical part of the Jutsu deflection technique. Even if I couldn't do the metaphysical part that would let me bounce fireballs, the physical part would at least help me deal with all these arrows.
Clearly somebody has spent some time figuring out how to fight me specifically and to my frustration, without my armor, it's working. As far as I can tell there's only two ways around my regeneration. The first is to wear me down enough that I run out of mana to keep putting myself back together. The second is to simply obliterate enough of my body in a single go that there isn't enough left to hold the mana to repair that level of damage. I don't know it for a fact, but I suspect that there's a level of bodily destruction that will simply not leave enough of myself for my regeneration to restore me.
The samurai are trying the first way. They stick to range, fall back as fast as I can advance under the withering hail of arrows that I have to defend myself from. I manage to take one down using my TK, launching him towards me so I can get Sclamhaire into him. Before he can reach me, though, one of his fellows puts an arrow through his neck so he's nearly dead by the time he gets to me. The mana I get is miniscule compared to what I'm spending.
I don't know what theory they've developed about how my powers work, but whatever it is it's close enough to the truth for them to have found ways around it. The pattern continues out of the barracks, through the storage room of the basement where my feline escort gets three more of them in the cluttered environment, and into the main house. I take arrows to my stomach, chest, and legs, one even bounces off my head, my troll bone skull the only thing that saves me. Each of them is quickly melted out of my body and healed, but each also consumes more mana. My stone skin technique obviously needs more work. Shots that would hit obliquely enough to simply tear me open, instead only scrape along my hardened flesh, but any direct hit will still punch through.
The samurai turn and sprint up the stairs to the main house when they reach them, and I run after them, finally not being hampered by their constant volleys of arrows. My cat follows me up the stairs, abandoning stealth in favor of keeping up. The stairway ends in a right-angled turn that I almost slide around in my rush, and I have only a moment to take in what I see.
A long hallway, no turns, cover, or other exits except the far end of the hallway. At the far end stand several ranks of samurai, that the ones I've been chasing quickly slip through the ranks of. But most importantly, a wall of arrows and jutsu is taking up the entirety of the hallway.
I have a bare moment to react, and working on instinct, as I don't have time to really think about anything, I jump. I leap up and slightly to the side away from the door I just came through. My body almost spins in the air as I assume a horizontal position in the air just in time for the wall of destruction to hit me.
The sole fire jutsu in the lot envelopes me with a comforting warmth for a split second, while the rest of the barrage slips around me. Then I belly flop to the ground with a grunt, and quickly roll across the ground back to the door, taking cover in the stairwell.
My eyes are wide and I'm breathing hard.
That... was very close.
My mana is rather low after the far too effective fighting retreat I'd just chased into this ambush. The fire never would have hurt me, but any of the other jutsu? Or the arrows? Those might have done me in. I didn't even have the time to pull through Sclamhaire to get more than what little bits of the fire touched her directly. Also known as not enough to matter.
Note to self, it's hard to spot people that are holding still and not using chakra through people that are.
So what the hell am I going to do now?
For several long moments that feel like forever, all I can do is sit and catch my breath. Once I'm breathing normally again, I stick my head around the corner about half-way between the floor and my standing height.
I still nearly take an arrow to the forehead. I manage to get a look, though. It's about what I remember seeing the first time. I couldn't get a good count of how many there are, packed together like they are. There's also a shimmer in the air around them, very faint. I wonder what I'm supposed to be seeing that I'm not.
I glance down at the cat who's been accompanying me. "Any ideas?"
He pushes his whiskers forward in a feline smile and bares his teeth, "Just wait, Princess."
I raise an eyebrow, but he only smiles harder. So with a shrug, I wait.
Only moments later my patience is rewarded. The sounds of combat erupt from around the corner. I can hear five or so small furry bodies moving swiftly between the men blocking the corridor.
I smile as I dart around the corner, my feline escort close on my heels. The back ranks of the opposing samurai are in chaos, but how well trained they are shows in that it's only the back ranks. The front keep their focus on the hallway, trusting their comrades to guard their backs from the unexpected attack. Worse, the samurai in the front have abandoned jutsu and pulled their bows.
I'm ridiculously fast, especially with my physical enhancement technique running, but I'm not supersonic arrow fast. That's the entire point of the things, a ranged weapon that moves fast enough that the ninja can't just dodge or block. I'm low on mana, very low, the amount of healing I've been doing with only a minimal amount of recovery has me running on fumes. The chakra metal arrows will do a lot of damage, and if they end up stuck in me I'll have the choice of pulling them out, and causing more damage to heal, or leaving them for my regeneration to deal with, which will cost more mana still.
I could duck back around the corner, get behind cover. I'm about to be turned into a pincushion, and I'm still fighting naked. Or I can try to close with them fast enough to make their bows irrelevant. Or at least get enough of a piece of one to heal the damage I take getting to them.
...
Fuck it. I'm getting out of this place.
The corridor is too narrow for my wings, so with a thought I telekinetically launch myself down the corridor. A moment later I slam myself to a halt, Sclamhaire cutting down at the samurai in front of me. The man's reflexes are impressive, he yanks his bow up as I stop and for a moment the world seems to slow. A samurai arrow is pointed right between my breasts, and at this distance the arrow will go right through me, troll bone or no. Of course, Sclamhaire is already descending on him. If I get there first, I'll be fine. If he releases the arrow first, I likely won't have the strength to heal, or complete the swing in a manner that'll help.
So I just have to swing faster.
I grit my teeth and commit...
And something clicks deep inside me, like a last puzzle piece finally fitting into place.
The world speeds up again, my vision is blocked by a shifting mass of black mist and shadow. The thrum of a bowstring reaches my ears along with an unexpected rush of mana, and a moment later Sclamhaire carves through the samurai, armor and all, giving me yet more mana.
My vision clears, and weight settles around my body. I take a deep breath, and can't help but smile. I feel complete in a way that I haven't felt in so long that I didn't even notice the missing pieces any more. I glance down and my smile widens as I find myself clad in my armor again.
I can't help myself, I start to laugh.
Then, without stopping, I carve into the samurai trying to hold me, my laughter accompanied by the furious yowling of angry cats.
###
The samurai that had been left to guard me had obviously been trained in a method of fighting me specifically. I have no idea what bits and pieces were observed of me fighting to give away the weaknesses that they exploited, but it doesn't matter now, my armor changes the equation entirely. My cats and I sweep through the internal guard stations of the manor almost without slowing down.
Almost.
I can't forget that a preset trap has already taken me down once, and I take my time to make sure that I don't wander into another one. Soon enough, though, we run out of enemies inside the building, and take the opportunity to catch our breaths.
"So what do we do now?" one of the cats asks.
"There are plenty more troops," the ocelot in charge tells me. "When it became clear that they weren't stopping us they fell back to the front and back courtyards. The only ways out of the house would take you right into the two largest concentrations of samurai left. More in one place than we've faced all together so far."
I consider for a moment, then blink. "They've all gathered at the front and back of the house? Nobody is watching the sides?"
The ocelot shrugs, "The only ways out through the walls are the front and back."
"Yeah... I don't really feel like fighting them on our own." That many samurai in the open would be a problem even with my armor. And these cats aren't really made for a stand up fight. They'll have to be dealt with, but not right now, and not necessarily by me. "Is there a second floor or higher window that they won't be able to see from where they've rallied?"
The ocelot grins, "I might know one or two."
Minutes later we leap from a third story window over the outer wall of the compound with a beat of my wings, and escape into the city. The city, though, is not what I expected. I can smell smoke in the air and see fires in the distance. I can hear the sounds of fighting from all over the city, but especially from the direction of the Daimyo's palace.
How the hell did this happen? When did the troops get into the city? There's no sign of fighting on the walls. And where did they come from? I don't know the exact numbers, but there's no way the pro-ninja faction could have gathered enough people from Iron to try something like this without somebody noticing.
And last I'd heard, a few hours ago from what I understand, the faction was dangerous politically, but showed no signs of becoming a military threat. Or even signs of trying to become a military threat. So how did this happen?
Just...
"What the hell is going on?"
- Location
- US
Wooo they done fucked up!
- Pronouns
- Masculine
Well, we know a few things.
1. In canon, Mifune leads Iron.
2. When Ericka arrived, Mifune is a respected, but honestly medium ranked Samurai in the military.
3. Something then happened between Ericka's arrival and canon to make Mifune the leader of Iron.
4. Ericka's presence, her nature, and the greed of her powers has made it worse. So canon is up in the air.
Cloning tech in Naruto has some intersting extra applications.
Predestination paradox, Ericka is what makes canon.
Loyal retainer putting down rebellious lords who still did enough damage before getting thwarted to take out the ruling family sounds like a great way to end up being the guy in charge.
- Location
- Argentina
We could have trains in the age of the Roman Empire but besides being way harder and more expensive there was the problem of sabotage.
Railways are hilariously easy to sabotage, Snow only gets away with it because they are not in a cold war with other ninja.
Heck they got taken down by a single ninja team, and is freaking cold. That's why the railways there still work because they literally are not worth the effort of constant sabotage.
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- Location
- Israel
WIth all technological mess going on Naruto could be post-singularity world. Super-intelligences mostly left or mutually destructed themselves leaving pecies of tech, magotech and manuals here and there. Even chakre networks could be part of those remnants.
Both of these seem like good times for the "I'm not here" glamour, and while that's an energy hog she should definitely have enough to at least close. If she does it and takes out all 10 in the first corridor she even has no witnesses.
Also, the lack of just going up through the ceiling or around through walls to get out of the prepared kill zone was somewhat annoying.
Still fun and I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
Norr
Misophist
- Location
- Any chair
I'm thinking she's still groggy after the sedative and not thinking clearly. I'm more disappointed that the cat didn't suggest it, but then again he probably isn't used to breaching tactics.
Aren't like half the cats giant sized? I'd think that smashing through walls and ceilings would be a common tactic.
IvanDead
My bones are made of schadenfreude.
- Location
- Brasil
To the enemy maybe, but I don't think those child sized ones are used to the fact that the tactic is available to them, especially with Ericka being only 6 feet tall rather than giant sized.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
When she was killing the researchers, she had a surplus of mana. She could have used that to summon reinforcements, maybe a couple of Bengal tigers with nice big shields. Guess we can blame brain fog again.
Nah, she doesn't actually have the summon contract, her assistant/secretary has it. It uses chakra and she has none (I think).
xbox432
Lover of Editing
Yeah, this is what I was wondering but in reverse. Why didn't the cats just reverse summon her? Or use the breaching strategies mentioned? World Script? Anything other than running face first into ambush after ambush?! Her using her wings was the first smart thing she did.
Either she was still being affected by those drugs or Tersin just wanted to write a fight scene.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ah. I'd forgotten about that detail. Is there anything else useful she could have used that surplus for? Guess I might be due for a re-read if I can't remember the details of what she can do.