Omake: Marked for Death: Voyage
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Once, a long time ago, a mother once told a boy that she found her heart by being a ninja.
And then the moment passed, and the Voyager Squad was gone without a trace.
Prologue
To bring someone back from the dead was not quite so simple a task as merely reconstructing their attendant biology, as Orochimaru had discovered all those years ago; no, the process was much more involved. To achieve even a limited immortality on the normal plane, Orochimaru had to seal his very soul to an anchor. Orochimaru, being a cunning and old ninja by that point, made several anchors just in case.
For Hazou, that solution was not good enough. Hazou wanted to achieve the miracle that the Pein had achieved on Nagi Island - six true resurrections from the Naraka Path, at the cost of the most powerful bloodline limit and an unfathomable amount of chakra. Hazou and his research collective did not have the world's most powerful bloodline limit, nor did they have an unfathomable amount of chakra - in fact, Hazou knew to the decimal point how many chakra units the group had access to at any given point in their project.
So his group needed to get creative. Their research collective would have to achieve several holy grails of sealing in order to begin to approach the results that prior efforts by Tobirama and Pein had supposedly so easily bypassed. What Hazou's research collective possessed, however, was a truly organized and rigorous team, generous external support, and Hazou's uncanny knack for finding a way to use lesser seals to achieve a greater effect.
Many years passed, as the research collective diverged into individual projects. A portion was dedicated to the biological aspect of resurrection - what use was dragging a soul back, if there was nothing to receive them in? Another portion was dedicated to improvements to a combat suit, one that could withstand the harshness of any environment, and defeat any ninja, beast, or demon the researchers might encounter. The last and final team was simultaneously the most important and riskiest group: their mission was to find a way to navigate between dimensional planes - the final goal would be to reach the Naraka Path, and create a two-way bridge between the worlds.
The biological body team succeeded first. Using their ability to construct artificial muscle, they transferred over to the combat suit team, and helped create an amalgam between chakra beast flesh, biological innovations, and sealtech to create a suit capable of fighting in any environment. One heart of a magma dragon provided the fire and earth chakra, while also providing heating; six fangs of the gargantuan ice yeti provided water and ice nature chakras, while also cooling the heart of the magma dragon. Three counterrevolving strips of sky squid sparked and spurred themselves on, generating a cyclone of wind and lightning chakra. Layered megalodon carapaces covered green veins from the millenial pine, which channeled chakra to the various weapon systems littered all over the suit. Space-warping seals expanded the internal and external space within the suit, enabling the deployment and storage of thousands seals. The finishing touch was the jutsu-boosting seals, twined all across the surface of the forearms and gloves. Any jonin wearing one would be qualified to defeat five S-Rankers, so the suit-makers boasted.
However, the dimensional plane navigators ran into an issue: prototypes of the dimensional seal system indicated that the cost of travel increased exponentially for every single extra unit of chakra. The Universal Traveller, as the team had begun to call the system, could launch a baby to the Naraka Path and back forty times, but would fail to even meet the activation cost to launch a single S-Ranker. That being said, the dimensional plane navigators said that their prototype seemed like it was going to be the only one that would work - the collective would either have to work around the limitation, or abandon the project entirely.
From Hazou's perspective, there was no decision.
The Grand Universal Traveller Sealtech Suit would be designed to reach a state of near total chakra exhaustion in both the user and suit in the instants before Universal Travel would initiate. Much to the grumbling of Naruto and Killer B, this excluded the jinchuriki from being part of the expedition almost instantly - no amount of chakra drain available to the project could hope to drain even a fraction of their staggering reserves.
The planners also agreed that many things were most likely going to go wrong - just in case, the final team would bring along supplies for one year, enough expendables to take out an entire Hidden Village, and one set of Grand Universal Travellers for each person. Hazou, as a sealmaster, taijutsu monster, and project leader, was a shoo-in for expedition leader. However, disagreement intensified about what criterion the other five members of the Voyager Squad would be selected on; eventually, the group decided on selecting the team members based on...
() Raw combat ability. With Hazou as the sealmaster on team, the council eventually decided that the most critical role was to make sure that Hazou survived all the way to the end - so long as he made it, everyone else could be brought back eventually. Thus, the team would be selected based on their ability to keep him alive. Team members: Akane, Lee, Tenten, Neji, and Kurotsuchi.
() Sealing ability. With so few copies of the Grand Universal Travellers, the council decided that the team needed to be able to repair and improve the travel method. Thus, the team was selected to conduct field improvements to the system. Team members: Kagome, Fuyuki, Makoto, Mika, and Hachiro.
() Team Uplift. The six of them have a diverse toolset and a preexisting deep cooperation in the group. Sending them on the journey (and away from the Elemental Nations) seemed like a no-brainer. Team members: Mari, Kagome, Noburi, Keiko, Akane.
() GIS. The substitution of Ino and Shikamaru for Mari and Kagome traded in a sealmaster and a social powerhouse for a social powerhouse and an analyst without peer, a valuable thing to take on such a journey. Team members: Noburi, Keiko, Akane, Ino, Shikamaru.
() Analytical ability. In the transit to other dimensional spaces, the ability to analyze the local environment could be the difference between life and death. In such a situation, it only makes sense to bring all the heaviest intellectual hitters. Team members: Keiko, Shikamaru, Ami, Ruri, and Yuzuki.
() International Compromise. It seems strange, but the final barrier to the other dimensions has always been the constraints in the Elemental Nations. Thus, the team was chosen to create a minimum of team friction between the members of rival villages, as they traveled to the Naraka Path and beyond. Team members: Kurotsuchi, Yuzuki, Ikeda, Ami, and Shiina.
() Some other combination?
"Console, ANGEL S7 Engines readings are green,"
After the boy's perception of reality advanced along the temporal axis, he found that he had lost a part of his heart.
"Squad Leader, we confirm green readings for the ANGEL S7 Engines,"
The mother exercised her limited ability in the three dimensional universe to provide for the two, as she was unknowingly constrained by the fifth.
"Voyager Squad, confirm ANGEL S7 Engine readings,"
The boy did what he could to assist the pair, but a bend in the fifth dimension resulted in no possibility except separation in the three dimensional universe.
"All green/Good to go/Affirmative/Yes, L-Squadr/All clear,"
So the pair split. Much as the warp in the higher dimensions of probability resulted in the termination of joint experience for many others, so too did it happen to this boy and his mother.
"Voyager Squad, conduct final checks on your GUTS suits,"
But the topography of a higher dimensional reality is not an absolute.
"This is Voyager Leader Goketsu Hazou. All systems are ready for the Universal Travel,"
Even if the journey is long.
"Any last words, Hazou?"
Do not cast away your sentiments in the face of reality.
"We'll succeed. No matter what."
Do not give up the childish voice that insists in the face of all contrary evidence that yes, the impossible is possible.
"Then you better bring 'em all back."
Everything must be defined in relation to the goal one sets for themselves.
"I will. Console, begin countdown to the Universal Travel,"
So when a man decides that he will end death, that he will not only bring back everyone he's ever loved, but bring back everyone that has ever died, must be the kind of man who would not flinch in the face of an impossibility.
"Brace for chakra drain. Five."
That is what that man decided all those years ago.
"Four."
So as the arrays on Nagi Island crackle in anticipation, the technicians and guests gathered around the Grand Universal Traveller snap to attention, fist over chest in a perfect salute.
"Three."
Everyone saluted their pride and joy, for the last interminable eternity.
"Two."
Supposedly, chakra was a means for everyone's wishes to be heard. A means for everyone's wishes to be granted.
"One."
Thus, Hazou sought to use one miracle to accomplish another.
"Voyager Squad, launch!"
Space rippled and shattered. Time stretched and snapped. Reality contorted and collapsed. Linear dimensions bent and folded in on themselves. None in the present audience had lived to see the end of Whirlpool, but some surmised that this incomprehensibility must be what that event was like.
And then the moment passed, and the Voyager Squad was gone without a trace.
Prologue
To bring someone back from the dead was not quite so simple a task as merely reconstructing their attendant biology, as Orochimaru had discovered all those years ago; no, the process was much more involved. To achieve even a limited immortality on the normal plane, Orochimaru had to seal his very soul to an anchor. Orochimaru, being a cunning and old ninja by that point, made several anchors just in case.
For Hazou, that solution was not good enough. Hazou wanted to achieve the miracle that the Pein had achieved on Nagi Island - six true resurrections from the Naraka Path, at the cost of the most powerful bloodline limit and an unfathomable amount of chakra. Hazou and his research collective did not have the world's most powerful bloodline limit, nor did they have an unfathomable amount of chakra - in fact, Hazou knew to the decimal point how many chakra units the group had access to at any given point in their project.
So his group needed to get creative. Their research collective would have to achieve several holy grails of sealing in order to begin to approach the results that prior efforts by Tobirama and Pein had supposedly so easily bypassed. What Hazou's research collective possessed, however, was a truly organized and rigorous team, generous external support, and Hazou's uncanny knack for finding a way to use lesser seals to achieve a greater effect.
Many years passed, as the research collective diverged into individual projects. A portion was dedicated to the biological aspect of resurrection - what use was dragging a soul back, if there was nothing to receive them in? Another portion was dedicated to improvements to a combat suit, one that could withstand the harshness of any environment, and defeat any ninja, beast, or demon the researchers might encounter. The last and final team was simultaneously the most important and riskiest group: their mission was to find a way to navigate between dimensional planes - the final goal would be to reach the Naraka Path, and create a two-way bridge between the worlds.
The biological body team succeeded first. Using their ability to construct artificial muscle, they transferred over to the combat suit team, and helped create an amalgam between chakra beast flesh, biological innovations, and sealtech to create a suit capable of fighting in any environment. One heart of a magma dragon provided the fire and earth chakra, while also providing heating; six fangs of the gargantuan ice yeti provided water and ice nature chakras, while also cooling the heart of the magma dragon. Three counterrevolving strips of sky squid sparked and spurred themselves on, generating a cyclone of wind and lightning chakra. Layered megalodon carapaces covered green veins from the millenial pine, which channeled chakra to the various weapon systems littered all over the suit. Space-warping seals expanded the internal and external space within the suit, enabling the deployment and storage of thousands seals. The finishing touch was the jutsu-boosting seals, twined all across the surface of the forearms and gloves. Any jonin wearing one would be qualified to defeat five S-Rankers, so the suit-makers boasted.
However, the dimensional plane navigators ran into an issue: prototypes of the dimensional seal system indicated that the cost of travel increased exponentially for every single extra unit of chakra. The Universal Traveller, as the team had begun to call the system, could launch a baby to the Naraka Path and back forty times, but would fail to even meet the activation cost to launch a single S-Ranker. That being said, the dimensional plane navigators said that their prototype seemed like it was going to be the only one that would work - the collective would either have to work around the limitation, or abandon the project entirely.
From Hazou's perspective, there was no decision.
The Grand Universal Traveller Sealtech Suit would be designed to reach a state of near total chakra exhaustion in both the user and suit in the instants before Universal Travel would initiate. Much to the grumbling of Naruto and Killer B, this excluded the jinchuriki from being part of the expedition almost instantly - no amount of chakra drain available to the project could hope to drain even a fraction of their staggering reserves.
The planners also agreed that many things were most likely going to go wrong - just in case, the final team would bring along supplies for one year, enough expendables to take out an entire Hidden Village, and one set of Grand Universal Travellers for each person. Hazou, as a sealmaster, taijutsu monster, and project leader, was a shoo-in for expedition leader. However, disagreement intensified about what criterion the other five members of the Voyager Squad would be selected on; eventually, the group decided on selecting the team members based on...
() Raw combat ability. With Hazou as the sealmaster on team, the council eventually decided that the most critical role was to make sure that Hazou survived all the way to the end - so long as he made it, everyone else could be brought back eventually. Thus, the team would be selected based on their ability to keep him alive. Team members: Akane, Lee, Tenten, Neji, and Kurotsuchi.
() Sealing ability. With so few copies of the Grand Universal Travellers, the council decided that the team needed to be able to repair and improve the travel method. Thus, the team was selected to conduct field improvements to the system. Team members: Kagome, Fuyuki, Makoto, Mika, and Hachiro.
() Team Uplift. The six of them have a diverse toolset and a preexisting deep cooperation in the group. Sending them on the journey (and away from the Elemental Nations) seemed like a no-brainer. Team members: Mari, Kagome, Noburi, Keiko, Akane.
() GIS. The substitution of Ino and Shikamaru for Mari and Kagome traded in a sealmaster and a social powerhouse for a social powerhouse and an analyst without peer, a valuable thing to take on such a journey. Team members: Noburi, Keiko, Akane, Ino, Shikamaru.
() Analytical ability. In the transit to other dimensional spaces, the ability to analyze the local environment could be the difference between life and death. In such a situation, it only makes sense to bring all the heaviest intellectual hitters. Team members: Keiko, Shikamaru, Ami, Ruri, and Yuzuki.
() International Compromise. It seems strange, but the final barrier to the other dimensions has always been the constraints in the Elemental Nations. Thus, the team was chosen to create a minimum of team friction between the members of rival villages, as they traveled to the Naraka Path and beyond. Team members: Kurotsuchi, Yuzuki, Ikeda, Ami, and Shiina.
() Some other combination?
So we haven't had omake in a while. I've also been watching someone else play through Super Robot Wars V and listening to "The EXCEEDER" and " 不退の覚悟 " on repeat for the past few weeks. This seemed like an excellent place to crossover.
i should be studying for finals lol
