Standing in front of the Hokage Tower, waiting for the sensei to show up, he'd seen a flash of white light and felt an odd lurch. At which point he was no longer in front of the Hokage Tower waiting for their sensei to show up.
"Where is your sensei?" asked a young boy he didn't know.
"Kakashi-sensei is always late," said Naruto. "Heya Chrono."
Sasuke's eyes flicked to the young boy, now having a name to go with the face. He returned his attention quickly to the view.
And it was definitely a different sort of view. He was in front of a window and the window was showing...
"We'll give him another half-hour then we have to get going," said Chrono, who then went to a wall-mounted device and started talking into it.
Naruto noticed what Sasuke was staring at. "We're in orbit above our world."
"Yeah, I kinda guessed that," admitted Sasuke, still staring at the view. "We're on a ship?"
"Investigative Battleship Asura," said Saber, coming to an 'at ease' pose.
"I thought it was the 'Arthra'?" asked Naruto.
"Translation spells have been known to shift details like that around," said Saber.
"So," said Naruto, brightening. "We got a little while before Kakashi-sensei graces us with his presence. Or Chrono gets impatient, they find him and teleport him here regardless of where he is. Whichever comes first. So, wanna tour, Sasuke?"
Sasuke considered that before inclining his head. "There a training room?"
It took twenty-five minutes before Chrono had finally lost patience.
Kakashi had appeared in the teleport chamber with his pants down around his ankles.
Naruto, the moment he'd heard about it, had started kicking himself for having missed the opportunity for SO much teasing.
"The mission objectives are fairly simple," said Chrono, forming an image in mid-air. "This was the transport Durango making its scheduled run from Astorian to Mid-Childa. They ran into an intradimensional disturbance three-quarters of the way. The ship broke into six pieces which then re-entered six different dimensions. As this is a rescue mission, time is of the essence."
Everyone glanced towards Kakashi who merely shrugged.
"This much is generally known to all teams," said Chrono. "Team 7's mission is on Non-Administered World #88, otherwise known as Seraf."
"I take it that we're going there precisely because we are NOT a TSAB team and this is a Non-Administered World?" asked Saber.
"Correct," said Chrono, shifting the image to show a mostly-brown orb with a few fleecy clouds. "The world is mostly desert with a single large continent. Seraf's civilizations are mostly nomadic wanderers and farmers."
Team 7 watched as the images depicted individuals wearing loose-fitting robes and hoods that left only hands and eyes bare. Then there were the others who wore more elaborate clothing that left arms and legs bare and were covered in tattoos.
"This is their magic-using class," explained Chrono. "They encountered a dimension-crossing race sometime in the past that had this magic-tattoo technology and they learned enough of it to copy parts. In the intervening millenia they have expanded upon it themselves. They are a priest caste, handing down religious teachings and also acting as judges and to some extent as their guardians and warriors using magic."
"That's some kind of fuuinjutsu, isn't it?" asked Kakashi, intrigued.
"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking to," said Naruto as he studied the imagery.
"Whatever the case, it's a form of magic and you shouldn't underestimate it," said Chrono. "According to Yuuno Scrya's research they touch the tattoo and then channel magic into it to activate it. An axe user like that one can form an axe, but apparently lightning, fire, and other forces can also be discharged quickly. Some of the accounts also speak of tattoos that provide magical armor, poisonous clouds, or can disintegrate solid objects."
"So, one of the pieces of ship went into this world?" asked Kakashi. "Any idea what was on it?"
"It was a passenger ferry," said Chrono, but then he frowned. "There's something odd going on though. The owning company has stated that there was something of great value on board, but has completely refused to give details. Only stating that the cargo is in a large Type III shipping container and that we're forbidden from opening it."
"Yeah, that doesn't sound suspicious," said Sasuke with a fair amount of sarcasm.
"Agreed," said Chrono. "If we get further details, we'll send them along."
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:48)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.