"Okay," said Naruto. "Go ahead."
"The answers I need are not from you," said the Hokage, looking pointedly at the staff.
Ripples of red light went up the crystalline black staff.
Naruto smirked. "Told you."
"My apologies if this is impolite, but as the Hokage of this village, I must know," said the Hokage, addressing the staff directly despite the obvious confusion of the ANBU.
[Very well.]
"What are your intentions? I know Naruto enough to read him somewhat, four years' journey to the side. You, however, I do not know. Nor do I count among my skills the ability to read the body language of a weapon."
The staff pulsed red a few times, then similar ripples of blue flowed along its length. [As Naruto told you, I am Mitternacht.]
"Yes, he said that you were a god that died," said the Hokage. "What are YOUR goals now?"
The staff rippled with light a bit, some red, some blue. The ripples when it spoke coincided with the words, so the Hokage thought that these other ripples indicated some internal dialogue or conflict.
[When I died, there were others. Allies. Followers. Those I was responsible for. While I and Naruto wandered, we saw many dead innocents. Children. Civilians. Lovers who died embracing as they waited for the end.]
"And you feel responsibility for them?" asked the Hokage.
[I couldn't help. Couldn't save them. Then I saw what had been done to Naruto, and an idea occurred. While we wandered, I gathered power. There was much magic hurled against me, and that I drank deep. Other times I sipped lightly rather than disperse the defenses. And while I cannot bring them back, there may be something yet that can be done. Some measure of their will may yet continue.]
"Something of Naruto's... ah," said the Hokage. "Spirit binding?"
[Yes.]
"What were you a god OF, anyway?" asked the Hokage.
[Magic, what you call jutsu and of what you call chakra.]
"You must have been a fairly powerful god then," observed the Hokage.
[Neither powerful enough, nor wise enough, apparently.]
Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled at that. There was an old shinobi saying to that effect. "I cannot say that sticking other people's spirits in any of my people is something I would encourage."
[Informed consent would be required in such a thing, but the plan changed after Mid-Childa.]
"Oh?"
[I must conserve energy. Naruto, if you would?]
"Okay," said Naruto, holding his hand out. The staff condensed to a single large marble of black within a slightly larger red-tinted sphere.
The Hokage waited until Naruto had slipped the marble into a pocket inside his vest.
"Mid-Childa is a land with very advanced magic, and they use magic wands and equipment called Intelligent Devices," explained Naruto. "They'll be contacting you before long I suspect. Anyway, Mitternacht was thinking of making items along those lines - except instead of a manufactured spirit-"
"I still don't like the idea of them not simply being sent on to the afterlife properly," said the Hokage, who really hadn't expected to have any conversations about the subject.
"In this case they didn't go on to a proper afterlife," said Naruto with a shrug. "That's a plan for the future anyway."
"How soon can I speak to these people of 'Mid-Childa'?" asked the Hokage.
"How soon do you want to?" asked Naruto. "As soon as I contact them, they'll probably have missions for me to do."
"What kind of missions?" asked the Hokage, thinking of D-Ranks.
"What do you send ANBU to do?" asked Naruto.
The ANBU and the Hokage all looked at Naruto. Naruto looked back.
"I see," said the Hokage, momentarily taken aback.
"Yeah," said Naruto. "It's going to be odd trying to go back to my old life. And Hinata's engaged to me. She's still twelve and I'm sixteen. Hope she can settle for being my 'little sister' for a while. Unless she just wants out of it."
[No.]
"No?" asked Naruto, fishing the marble out of his pocket. "I thought you'd gone into hibernation."
[I continue to reserve the right to speak if you're going to make a Damn Fool Mistake.]
"What makes you think it would be a mistake?" asked Naruto. "I mean she faints around me all the time, won't look directly at me, and she won't hardly talk to me."
[Give her time.]
Naruto shook his head and put the marble back in that pocket.
"So what's your specialty within ninjutsu?" asked the Hokage.
"Arcane magic, some divine, but mainly Extended and Amplified spells, assassin techniques, army killers, things for taking down monsters and enemies that are big and powerful," said Naruto.
"Well, then," said the Hokage, getting up. "Contact them soon. I'll need to meet with them before you go on any missions, of course. Team announcements are tomorrow morning. I'll tell you though, I'm going to arrange something different from how it would go normally."
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(Posted Fri, 28 May 2010 06:53)
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