"Are you sure this is safe?" asked Shizune.
"This is Jiraiya's chicken-scratch," said Tsunade, handing over the note that had been in the bundle.
Shizune checked but didn't know Jiraiya's handwriting well enough to be sure of that. "'Push this'? Push what?"
"I'm guessing it's something like this." Tsunade took a seat behind the desk, then flipped open the confiscated necklace.
Go for it, Hinata. You can do it!
Shizune looked at the odd transparent Naruto standing there in midair. "What IS that, anyway?"
"Classified as a Hidden Leaf secret until we know more," said Tsunade, who followed that by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.
Shizune looked at the thing while Tsunade did that. It was about the size of a teacup, half of a sphere, silvery with blue inlay, and on the top was a large green button.
Now ready if she needed to leap through the window and get away, Tsunade opened her eyes and touched the button.
A transparent Jiraiya, standing a little over a foot tall, formed in a fan of light from the device.
Tsunade, while I was travelling with Naruto we ran into a little... complication.
Tsunade snorted, concealing her relief behind a layer of annoyance. "'Little complication', he calls it."
What the people here tell me is that there is a huge number of not only worlds, but entire universes. You are currently are on one world in one universe. We found ourselves on another world in another universe entirely.
"Other worlds?" asked Shizune.
The Jiraiya-image shook his head and looked off into the distance for a moment before continuing.
I've seen worlds from so high up and at such distance that they've seemed like a child's ball. Six of them so far, as we've traveled. I'm told there's as many as grains of sand on a beach. I've seen suns and stars, and those stars are suns themselves with other worlds orbitting them. I've seen creatures that look like floating crystalline windchimes, and pictures of things that resemble demons more awful than anything we've ever seen on our world. There are beasts on this world which throw lightning bolts, and insects that spit acid. Plants which produce pollen that causes creatures to fall asleep."Here they have ships that can sail between those stars. We're currently on a world named 'Catseye' where jutsu seem to be largely suppressed. I'm using the opportunity to train Naruto in chakra control and management. Also I'm investigating some of these things to see what I might be able to bring back. I have some interesting leads in that regard.
"The device this message is on contains some information. It contains my first book, and has an additional three hundred and forty books of reference material. Since this device will be outside of Naruto's 'translation jutsu' range - I thought my book could be used to partially decipher the language these other books are written in.
"I'll send messages along as Naruto continues to try to send Hinata souveneirs so that she won't kill him for not responding to her love letter."
The image of Jiraiya faded.
"How do we get these books out?" asked Shizune.
"Hinata wrote Naruto a love letter?" asked Tsunade.
"Hinata's going to kill Naruto?" asked Shizune.
"Other worlds?" asked Tsunade.
"Other universes?" asked Shizune.
"Where can we get a copy of his book to use to decipher the others..." mused Tsunade.
"We could ask Kakashi, he's been sitting outside the window for the past few minutes," suggested Shizune.
There was brief silence, followed by someone stretching as if he had a crick in his neck. "Just... making sure others didn't try to spy on you."
"Of course," said Tsunade.
"I noticed you confiscated the necklace from Hinata's father after he confiscated it from Hinata," said Kakashi.
"Well, of course," said Tsunade, arching an eyebrow at the jonin. "Otherwise she'd never have a chance of getting it back."
Hinata sat in the dark, not really noticing as concepts continued to bounce around in her head and make her knees feel uncertain about the whole supporting-weight thing.
The toad had said 'a package from your sweetie' - and had then confirmed it was from Naruto. Twitch!
Then there'd been the present. Unfamiliar materials but certainly attractive. Jewelry. A locket. twitch! blush! And when it had opened... a personal message for her. Encouraging her to do her best. TWITCH! blush! fiddle with fingers.
Of course then her father and what seemed to be a squad of high-ranking ninja had smashed her door in while she was still staring flabbergasted at the little image of Naruto that had been produced by the locket.
Her father had confiscated the locket for some reason, then the Hokage had confiscated it - apparently the whole thing was now considered top secret.
Hinata twitched some more in the dark, considering all the various factors before deciding:
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(Posted Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:16)
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