She knew something was wrong though, when the sparks and glowing lines changed color abruptly and started hitting her.
"I'm telling you right now, Kakashi-sensei, it doesn't matter if you fail us. If I don't fix this right now, Sakura's DEAD."
Oh, that doesn't sound good. Huh? What do you mean dead?
"I don't understand, what happened to her?" asked Kakashi. "It was like-"
"There's another one," said Naruto, using a pair of tweezers to collect a glowing mote. "Sasuke, you're an Uchiha, use your eye-thing. See if you can find any more of her!"
"Those sparks are Sakura?" asked Sasuke, eyeing the pitcher of orange juice that had been emptied to contain the glowing motes. "Besides, I can't use the Sharingan. Not since that night."
I'm what?
"Most times when a spell is disrupted it can have weird effects," said Naruto. "A Mono Volt, for example, might suddenly become a spray of color or something else minor. THAT was a Dragon Slave. MAJOR powerful destructive magic. If it had hit Kakashi-sensei, he would have blown up along with half the training ground."
This is all your fault, Naruto! You better fix me!
"Gee, thanks," said Kakashi.
"Hey, you're the one who wanted us to kill you," grumbled Naruto as he found another mote and collected it.
Oh, that's right. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, KAKASHI-SENSEI!
"Well, she's the one who decided to disrupt your jutsu, so this is HER fault," said Kakashi. "All right, you fail."
"Fine, we fail," snapped Naruto. "Now help us gather everything! We can still save her!"
You'd BETTER!
"Uhm, she's blown up into half-a-pitcher of glowing pebbles," pointed out Sasuke.
Well, at least I'm kind of pretty... AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
"Look, it's a destabilized polymorph," said Naruto, holding up a glowing bit with his tweezers. "The mathemagical likelihood of this happening is millions of one against, but I do know something about it. Basically all we have to do is gather up all the little Sakura-bits and I can use those to put together a temporary housing for her spirit while I work out a better fix."
Sasuke debated asking what the heck all that meant but decided it was beneath his dignity.
"So gather up the little bits?" asked Kakashi, using a pair of chopsticks to gather up a little glowy-bit to put in the pitcher. "Will the orange juice hurt her?"
"More than being blown up?" asked Sasuke.
"No," said Naruto. "I've got a drycleaning spell that can clean off things like that. Just want to avoid anything else. As long as I know it's there, that spell can remove it. If there was something I couldn't specifically name - that might be a problem."
Someone ask him 'what kind of problem'!
"What kind of problem?" asked Kakashi, finding another glowy-bit.
Thank you.
"Well, if it's just a trace of something, when she's put back together she'd have a trace of something but still be Sakura," said Naruto. "I think."
You THINK?!
"Just give an example, would you?" asked Kakashi. This is going to be a very interesting report to write.
"Well, if there was pixie dust anywhere in there," said Naruto, stopping so he could think about it. "There'd be a small chance she'd end up six inches tall and able to fly."
"That could be handy for a ninja," pointed out Sasuke. "Just think of the spying missions."
WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Sasuke's being mean to me!
"She'd probably spend a lot of time hiding in your shirt," mused Naruto.
WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH... what? Oh. Hmmm. No, bad Sakura.
"That's it, isn't it?" asked Naruto. "I don't see any more."
THERE'S ONE! RIGHT OVER THERE!
"Yeah, I think that's it," said Sasuke.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! OVER THERE! RIGHT! OVER! THERE! That beetle's got it! NO, COME BACK HERE!
"Okay, I need to take this to my lab," said Naruto, picking up the container.
"What happens if you DID miss something?" asked Kakashi, debating whether or not to look around with his Sharingan.
The beetle just got ate! It's right over there!
"Well, it could be she'd reconstitute missing something," said Naruto.
'Something'?!
"Something?" asked Sasuke.
"Well, it could be a personality element like... like her obsession on you," said Naruto speculatively. "Or it could be something like her spleen. I'm really not clear on all that, the scrolls didn't go into detail with the Chaotic Polymorph Extremus because there was such a faint chance of it. Most likely she'd have just turned into a pink puppy dog or something."
"Oh, is that all?" asked Sasuke. "I'm going home."
"Maybe I should ask Hinata to come out here and help me look later," mused Naruto. "Just in case."
"Let me know tomorrow morning how it turns out, I'll need it for my report," said Kakashi.
Hinata was surprised, pleasantly so, at Naruto telling her that he needed her.
HER. Someone needed HER. Naruto NEEDED her. Hinata was also surprised by having to supress a squee/glomp reaction she didn't know she had.
There was some initial disappointment when she realized what she was needed for, but she got over it when the explanation was made.
After all, while it wasn't THAT, someone still needed HER.
How cool was that?
So she'd found the little glowing thing and killed the little whatever-it-was that had swallowed it, and brought it to Naruto's apartment where he'd apparently knocked a hole in a wall and made a lab in the formerly-empty apartment next door.
She was tempted at one point to walk around with one shoulder slightly higher than the other and lisp out "yeth mathter" or something similar while Naruto was working. The impulse passed after a few moments though, because this WAS pretty serious.
"EUREKA!" said Naruto around three in the morning on one of the occasions Hinata was bringing him tea.
"Isn't that a small town along the coast of Wave?" asked Hinata.
"Uhm, no. Actually, it means I got something working," said Naruto.
Did I miss something? I was out haunting Sasuke. complained Sakura's spirit.
"Oh? Did you have fun?" asked Hinata.
He didn't even... Sakura blinked and looked back.
"What are you looking at Hinata?" asked Naruto.
"Oh, Sakura says she's back from haunting Sasuke," answered Hinata.
WHAT?! screeched Sakura.
"Are you sure?" asked Naruto.
"Oh yes, I can see her when my Byakugan's active because she still has a chakra network," said Hinata. "I can also read lips. Everyone in my clan gets some training in that."
WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?! said Sakura.
"Every time I've seen you, you were talking, and it isn't polite to interrupt," said Hinata.
"Wow, that'll be handy," said Naruto, deciding to just go with it. "Hinata, that's so cool!"
"Oh, ah, eto, uhm, thank you," said Hinata, blushing and fidgeting and looking very self-conscious.
Oh, give me a BREAK!
"Anyway, if Sakura's here and listening, then I can explain what I'm going to do," said Naruto. "Which is-"
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(Posted Mon, 10 May 2010 02:48)
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