Chapter 149 - Arc 10 - The Game: Different Perspective

There's a specific line in here I'm not sure anyone will see the significance of until it comes up later. I'm okay with that.

Sorry this is so late. I actually had it done a while ago but my computer broke and it took a while to get working so... you know how it is.

Thank you for your support.

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The dirt beneath her feet is black and scorched and crunches beneath her feet. It doesn’t look like dirt, it doesn’t particularly feel like dirt, and she can’t imagine how anything could grow in this. Despite that, there are trees and bushes and even a yellowed version of grass growing in it, so what does she know about botany? Some kind of deer man on two legs runs by her, and she finds herself taken aback once again by the uncanny valley this small respite from the game room has brought her. “And you’ll eat that?” Sakura asks, pointing as the shaggy haired deer person thing fades into the distance.

“We will, yes.” Samael nods with a gentle smile. She’s had to be quite patient with Sakura, she’s not really comprehending this culture and its interaction with wildlife the way small children in this world do. Sakura knows she’s being difficult but it just doesn’t make a lot of sense. These creatures are intelligent looking, she’s even heard a few words whispered. “Don’t kill me!” that’s a bunny girl just disappearing after screaming, so like, they’re both capable of begging for their lives and hunted frequently enough they just assume that’s why the three of them are here.

“And we consider this ethical?” Sakura asks, blinking at the empty clearing, the creatures know to evade them…

“It’s needed to live, Sakura.” Rosalia of all people seems on Samael’s side here, and Sakura can’t help but shake her head. She’s expected to believe the rich don’t gorge themselves here? They only ever eat what they need, nothing more? No meat goes in the trash, nothing is wasted, they use the hair to create bracelets and stuff? With intelligent wildlife, she’d expect a more vegetarian approach, but then how intelligent is the wildlife in her world? She’s never checked, is it just more obvious here? Do they tell tales of how it’s fake, how these creatures don’t have genuine emotion, or is it swept under the rug with justifications she’s not ready to deal with.

Is she making a big deal out of nothing or does this world just have a much looser set of morals than her from the ground up? And with how many people she’s killed or helped kill, can she really even make a moral stance here? She knows one thing. “I’m gonna go vegetarian while I live here, I think I’ve decided that.”

“Don’t do that,” Samael snickers at her like she’s being ridiculous, “we’re already not sure how the otherworldly nutrients are interacting with your body, at least wait until we can get you a doctor before you start making grand decisions.”

“That’s fair.” She decides, nodding slowly, a little green to her gills.
“Okay, one rule though, we never tell Naruto.” She is going to see if she can open up negotiations and start having animals shipped through the portal; she'd feel more comfortable with that… after she makes sure they can’t count.

“It helps that we get experience from the meat, and levels extend our life both figuratively in that we’re less likely to get murdered, and physically in that we age slower and less impactfully at higher levels.” Samael explains, “at around level forty you actually stop aging completely, if you reach level forty too young you have to use magic to age yourself up.”

“How often does that happen?” Sakura asks.

“Oh it doesn’t, level forty is the result of like, a thousand battles.” Samael snickers at her, “but historically some noble children have had that issue because of nepotism and trade, Saruka was one of them.” Sakura chooses not to even bother asking what that means.

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Mebuki’s feet take her ever forward but she’s not happy about it. It’s been days since their ‘argument’ at the forest entrance, if one can even call it that, and she’s even less happy about the idea now than back then. As much as she wants to save her daughter, sacrificing Haku is too much. Committing, not quite treason but clearly working against the Hokage’s interest of keeping this damn thing under lockdown to prevent a potential invasion is also a lot. She loves this place, it’s been her home for so long. She loves Haku, he’s probably the closest thing she’ll ever get to an adult child, what with how eager to die screaming Sakura and Naruto seem to be. He might also be gender fluid, she knows he at least likes cross dressing. She hasn’t asked, maybe she should, but if it’s not important to him it shouldn’t be to her so, either way she appreciates her house being more colorful.

Despite that, every step takes her through ash and closer towards a portal only she and a few others could ever see. Haku’s gentle steps crumple behind her, intentionally loud for some reason. She assumes it’s some attempt to remind her that he stands beside her, but sometimes people just do things subconsciously, she shouldn’t assume people’s intentions like that. Especially not people she cares about. Kizashi walks to her side, reminding her of how easy it really was to convince her to go along with this despite all her misgivings and stern refusal. It’s about her daughter, she was always going to fold, but can she forgive herself if this goes poorly?

She could lose Haku too, she could lose Kizashi if he does something dumb. She’s well aware he’s got half a mind to jump through when she opens the gateway despite their agreement to be here for Sakura when she gets back. She’ll have to put some effort into stopping him and that means even less safety measures for Haku. She wishes he would have agreed to stay home, but then she would have given up halfway if he had so she understands why he refused her pleading.

It’s with this thought that she steps out into the center of it all, the explosion’s crater, and looks up at the gazing eye of another world and its fiery whispers of void. It sees her, it knows what she’s doing. She can’t tell if that’s a good or a bad thing but she can tell its sight is on her. It’s eerie, her hair stands on end and she can’t help but wonder if the monotone environment around her is truly the result of her daughter’s action, or if she’s just so depressed she can hardly see color.

More importantly, she’s not the only one here. “Please don’t try and stop me, I already don’t want to do this.” She calls out with a lie. She’d like them to stop her. Please stop her. Someone, for the love of everything, stop her.

“At the very least, that is not my reason for being here.” Kakashi’s standing there, leaning against an invisible wall the Hokage no doubt had set-up to prevent anyone from walking up to the void rift and potentially getting attacked by it. Or eaten by it. Or worse, she’s not sure what would be worse than being eaten by a portal but she can imagine it involves screaming for hours. “It is also not his intention to stop you.”

“His?” She spins on her heel, just in time to see a very old man land in front of her.
Her eyes take in someone she hasn’t seen for many years, not since Minato’s death. The last time she saw him, he shook his head at her, that was all he could say or do. Now he stands tall and with conviction. “Jiraiya?” He’s one of the only other people here who can see, activate, or mess with the portal, and despite Kakashi’s words, she’s sure he’s here to intercept them. She doesn’t show it, but she’s very grateful. ‘Oh darn that Jiraiya’ she’ll say when her husband pouts, but at least she’ll keep Haku, she’ll keep her home nice and clean and welcoming for when her daughter brings herself home.

She trusts in Sakura, at least the part of her that has to trust in Sakura does.

Jiraiya is stronger than they’ll ever be, even at their top this just wouldn’t be a fair fight, and that means when he says ‘stop’ they have to stop. Her husband knows that, Haku knows that. It won’t even involve blood. Jiraiya alone is insurmountable enough they’ll have to plead with the Hokage for forgiveness and understanding from the insides of a temporary prison cell. Kakashi and Jiraya? There is no version of this that doesn’t involve some groveling. Haku won’t be sacrificed for their emotions and false hopes, so she’s happy, but he’s not a ninja of Konoha so hopefully they’ll be even more lenient with him and not worse.

“You’re not thinking of trying this alone, are you?” The man gives them an awkward pose, he’s always done stuff like that but with his hand out and his back leg pushed really far behind him, Mebuki’s not sure how to take that. “You know this thing will close the moment it wants to with just you.”

“Yes well… I know. Please stop me.” She looks down at her feet, and hears the man walk towards the portal and away from her. She’s waiting to be forcefully knocked unconscious and every moment that passes without that, she can’t help but get nervous. Her heart beats in her ears, fears coming to life that Kakashi might not be lying, and Haku might still get sent into a hostile land with a gift basket of hopes and dreams.

“Why would I do that, when I can help you go get her?” The great sage says. Causing her head to shoot up, and her eyes to water. “I’ll be helping you hold the portal open, Kakashi’ll be going through with Haku. It’s the least I can do, after what my brother did.”

“How can you still call him that?” Kizashi interjects for the first time the entire conversation, the man letting off a scoff that’s far louder than it really should be. Every noise they make echoes through the empty land that was once a forest, meaning the Hokage has likely already received a report telling him about how the five of them are here.

“Regardless of his actions, Orochimaru was once someone I considered my brother. You can never truly discard your family, no matter how hard you try, their evil will always hurt, their good deeds will always be something you’re proud of, and their death will always be something you mourn. I’m glad he’s dead, but there will always be a part deep inside of me that wishes things could have been different.” The old man says with a haunted wisdom behind his eyes. “That’s not worth talking about here, Sarutobi Will notice I’m helping you before long so we need to do this now if we’re going to at all. Hopefully, I can smooth this over by being there to seal it back up with you, but if we take too long this’ll just look like blatant, careless treason and that’s a whole nother can of worms.”

“Understood.” Cold feet and tired bones take her to the barrier setup to prevent someone just like her from going through. Despite the term barrier, it might as well be made of tissue paper. It’s a promise of pain for disobedience, not any sort of physical ward strong enough to stop her or Jiraiya. She waves her hand, dispelling a portion of it so they can all walk through. She looks back at Haku to give a warning, Kakashi doesn’t need it. “I know this is going to be terrifying, you must not stop, no matter what the portal screams at you, you cannot slow down. If you are deep inside of there and the panic gets to you, you will use it to run faster. Anything else is death.”

“I understand, ma’am.” Haku gives her the closest approximation he can to a smile. It’s sad this might be one of the last times she sees any sort of emotion on that cold, calculating, pale face. Her second son - and possibly daughter at times - has become very precious to her over the months he lived with her before Sakura’s disappearance.

The month since her disappearance and shared grief has only helped them grow closer.

“Death might feel good, right about now.” Kakashi gives her a solemn nod, “I have to get my cute Genin back first though.”

There’s no more room for discussion because they don’t have much time. Jiraya slaps a paper seal on the portal’s invisible entryway at her pointing. He could see it, she's sure, but her sight has always been better for this, and he trusts her. She trusts him too, she even trusted him to stop her from doing this stupid, selfish, horrible thing.

Maybe she should stop trusting him. She clasps her hands together over a hot gemstone she’d long put away in a chest and lost the key to. Prying that open brought back some bad memories, but here she is, hoping to create good ones from poking around where she swore never to do so again. In a perfect setting, Haku goes through this portal, nothing weird happens, Haku comes back with Sakura and Naruto and Neji and honestly who gives a rats ass about any of the others. Just come home alive, kids… that’s all she asks. Don’t be a hero, don’t try to pull a freaking Minato. Especially Naruto, stupid hereditary hero habits.

That’s before she notices something. Something that shakes her to her core.
She checks again. She looks over the portal twice, she opens her eyes wide and relies on different senses entirely. She fondles her gemstone, moves it around at the portal’s entrance and takes in the information readily available to her. “What’s taking so long?” Jiraiya asks.

“I can’t open this portal.” She gasps, looking over it one more time for measure with a gaping mouth. “This portal’s already open.”

“What?” The man jumps in place, sending his Chakra through the seal he’s set up, and feeling it resonate endlessly outwards. “I sealed this myself, Sarotobi helped me, how could this be open?”

“Doubt as you may, it is.” She reaches in and feels the energies swirl around her hand and the crystal. “It wasn’t just a one-off, they’ve had free access to our world the entire time. Why hasn’t the invasion started?” She’s not sure how to take this in at all, there’s so many hidden implications to them having free access to their world this entire time. No caveats, no temporary pass throughs, no system argued verification, the ability to just walk in at any moment and share a beer. There could be thousands over here already, hundreds of thousands even. What if their people are invisible? What if they each have some kind of parasite latched onto them that’s devouring their minds?

“Maybe… this is more complicated than I thought.” Jiraiya admits, looking around at them. “We should regroup and think this through. This could be a trap, or a trick, or even something far stranger than we’ve anticipated. Going through right now could be a huge mistake.” Jiraiya explains.

“Not going through while it’s safe could be a bigger one.” Haku says softly, looking at the space where the two have apparently decided this ‘portal’ is. “I came here to get Sakura, I do not intend to walk away because something strange is happening.”

“As the highest rank here, I have authority over all of you, and I’m saying we need to talk to Sarutobi about this.” Jiraiya argues.

“No offense, great Sannin, but I’m not a Konoha ninja.” Haku says prissly, “and despite your words you won’t lift a hand to stop me. I can tell you want me to go through too.”

Jiraiya’s lack of rebuttal says more than anything he could have actually spoken.

So as if ignoring every survival instinct he could have ever developed over his relatively short life in this world, Haku walks towards them, and disappears into thin air like he never existed.

“Everyone else, we need to go talk to Sarutobi.” Jiraiya speaks up after a long awkward moment of watching the space Haku disappeared into. “After making sure the portal doesn’t try to close on him.”

“Once a softie, always a softie.” Kakashi chuckles, “that Haku’s a good kid.”

“Let’s just make sure he stays in one good kid piece.” Mebuki spreads her arms, and channels everything she has into the crystal, slashing it through the space to visibly part the rift. Her hands then flow into it, and with a hum she spreads her energies outwards, forcefully prying it open a little further.

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The harsh dirt feels a little more natural after a long day of walking, but that doesn’t stop it from feeling odd. The wildlife continues to surprise her though, she can’t help but feel like this world defies the laws of physics she learned about in school. Murmuring catches her ears, and Sakura looks up as she leans against a tree. In front of her, out in a clearing, are many wooden buildings that look shoddily put together but surprisingly sturdy. There’s plants on top of each building, providing some form of extra cover from the elements, though Sakura’s not sure what kind of elements they have to deal with here. She’s been told they don’t have water so they certainly don’t have rain.

She fears the idea that lava might rain from the sky. Amidst the buildings she watches little green people walk around, people she’s killed before. “Are they intelligent too?” Sakura asks, struck with a sudden thought, “goblins.” They can’t be too intelligent, simple clones worked on them back then. Then again, would she notice clones were fake if she’d never been introduced to the concept before?

“Most are.” Samael explains with a kind tone that Sakura can tell is a little happy to be talking about something other than basic wildlife concepts. “Saruka wanted me to make sure you saw a Goblin village, since there’ll be one really close to your settlement. Connected even.”

“I blew up a hundred of their souls.” Sakura explains, wiping away a tear that doesn’t come.
She doesn’t feel guilty per say, but there’s a part of her that doesn’t like how easy that was. Even in a terrible situation. That was a small settlement worth of souls she blew up, and that’s before considering the forest she very directly blew up.

“Those souls were gifted to you so you could use them as needed, what you did was survival. Always survive, Sakura, always.” Samael stands with her hands on her hips, looking at the workers work. Sakura’s eyes catch a little green woman walking around with a big stick. It has feathers on it, as does her outfit, which is a nice change since they don’t wear clothes. The woman taps people on the head as she goes around, and Sakura can see a little bit of a glow when the creature does..

“What’s it doing?” Rosalia asks, pointing at the feathered and smarter looking creature.

“Goblin Shamans have a little bit of magical energy, it’s a one in a thousand kind of thing.” Samael explains, “it’s not enough to really do anything but one of the easiest spells for them to learn is to restore fatigue. She’s making sure the workers are alright, and making sure everyone's okay to keep working.”

“That’s a she?” Rosalia asks, stepping a little closer and pulling a hand over her eyes to block out the scorching sun above. “I thought goblins only had males, what from some of their activities in the past… truly deplorable activities towards my people.”

“Most of that is us taking the rumors and making them way worse to scare travelers. We’re at war, remember?” Samael says, reaching over to pat Rosalia’s head. The girl bristles and grunts under her breath, but Samael really gets in there with her fingers and soon enough the short teen is managing to drool in bliss. Sakura wonders if something about Samael’s hands feels especially good, or if Rosalia is really that starved for affection. It’s probably the second one. “Some of that is that we send the really, really dumb ones to attack the roads and invade because we don’t want them spreading the gene pool to our people, and they can be useful that way. Statistically, female goblins are smarter so they don’t get sent nearly as often.”

“Classic Monster Eugenics.” Rosalia nods slowly, “I have a little bit of vampire in me, not a lot but it’s there.”

“A lot of your people do, it’s really noticeable if you focus on it.” Samael says with a soft tone, “that was something the third Dark Lord tried to make wide-spread. Your family likely made sure to breed it into you because of the benefits, but the real reason is that back then holy magic was all over the place and if everyone would be hurt by it, no one could use it. It was yet another attempt at nullifying one of your advantages.”

“So you could invade safer?” Rosalia huffs at her, crossing her arms and trying to resist the allure of the fingers on her scalp; she does a poor job of looking annoyed.

“So that there were less weapons. The second and third Dark Lord were trying very hard to end the ceaseless conflict. The role of a Dark Lord is to protect our people, not kill humans. Killing evil humans is my job, not Saruka’s,” Samael snickers aloud at the thought, “well, more like my passion.”

“The books said one of your jobs was to fight Elementals to keep the peace and calm them down, have you had to do that?” Sakura asks, finally looking away from the thriving Goblin village below to actually give Samael her attention.

“No, despite the criticisms people throw at her, Saruka has done a very good job understanding and working with them. She’s good at this, she’s just young… probably a lot like you.” the older woman gives her a look that Sakura’s not sure how to place. Her Charm skill doesn’t help either, since this woman clearly has a high Charm and is negating it. “Come along, we can’t stay out too long but I at least want to show you both a river of lava and the lava based plants.”

“How in the actual fuck does a plant grow from Lava instead of water?” Sakura can’t help but blurt out.

“Not sure myself, but it’s really cool.” Samael laughs, a charming melody arriving from her lips as she takes her hand away from Rosalia. The smaller girl’s expression is mixed, unsure if she’s happy to no longer have her personal space violated, or sad to have lost genuine physical affection. Sakura takes a moment to resolve herself to get a cuddle pile going once Ino’s back.

Ino is going to love her, she can already tell. If nothing else, she’s adorable and Ino loves adorable things, people or not. She might have to warn her about Akari, lest she pull her in after passing her in the hall.