Camping (Part 2)
(Second part. If you see any mistakes write them down in the comments.)
Time passed quickly and the scenery changed continuously. From a tightly packed awning of greenery the canopy turned into a collection of shade providing pockets of leaves and finally opened up into a pastoral glade. Cole curiously stared at the glittering light shafts and the bubbling brook and the mossy rocks, at anything really that caught his fancy and distract him. His face a numb mask plastered with a stiff smile. He'd been caught between desperation, panic and relief since the beginning of this ordeal. It was soothing, to know that it had passed.
'Holy fuck.' That was the only thought trickling through Cole's mushed brain.
Kakashi existed in an entirely different league from him and Yuya, it wasn't even funny anymore. Cole didn't even know what comparison he could draw, because there was nothing to find parallels in. Kakashi was, for all intents and purposes, a true-blue superhuman. Cole had to stiffle a laugh when he thought about his earlier anxiety and apprehension. Kakashi had survived a prolonged battle against Kaguya with his chest carved open like a thanksgiving turkey, how could he have forgotten that. Of course his measly kunai could have never hurt him. Cole sighed. Both him and Yuya had a long way to go still. At that thought he perked up and glanced at the huffy girl. 'Yeah, both of us.' He admit, she had become his best friend in this new world... Ways away from his happy thoughts he belatedly realised that Zabuza and Haku moved within the same ballpark of strength as Kakashi, the blood drained from his face.
"So, what are you two doing here?" Kakashi asked without turning, stopping Cole's mounting terror cold. There was no accusation in his voice, or intent other than to make empy talk, but Cole knew better and bit back whatever word would have come from him first. "Sightseeing." Yuya answered.
Kakashi debated on his next words but decided to shrug instead. "In the Land of Waves? Wouldn't do that if I were you. Something is happening over there." He turned towards Cole and smiled deliberately. "But I suppose you already know that?"
A gale blew through the empty glade, drawing around Kakashi like a brewing storm. Cole's breath hitched.
Yuya put herself defensively before him, not even determined anymore, just grim and accepting of whatever fatalistic slaughter would soon unfold. Reassuringly he waved her away. "I suppose... I do. I want to help." He said with all the conviction he could muster.
The mullberry trees and oaks and maple and overgrowth stilled, sound receded. Cole's eyes zeroed in on Kakashi, as the world moved at the will of this man. "You were right, Naruto. He can be a bit of an idiot." Nature reclined in relief and the empty glade exploded in colours. Sheets were pulled away from bristling bushes and revealed expertly set tents, carpets of branches shot upward with familiar faces crouching underneath them. Kakashi shook his head in amusement, withdrew a thin booklet and ducked into his tent.
A man he recognized as Might Guy, with black bowl cut, thumb-thick eyebrows and his patented, pearlescent grin, walked up to them. He clapped a calloused hand on his shoulder and gave him a thumbs-up. "Sorry for my friend Kakashi, he can be a bit strict sometimes. But, helping wherever you can? You got the heart of a ninja, a real man's man!" The boisterous man's easy laughter echoed through the glade and Cole found himself smiling along, albeit flabbergasted and wincing from Guy's steely palms. Yuya stared at Might Guy and him in schadenfreude instead, entirely too amused by the man's violent ministrations on his fragile and soft body, Cole decided - but he was glad for Guy's disarming nature. But first, there was something he had to do. The heat in his eyes had cooled to a great degree and Cole managed to invok Insight again. More fire spit in his brain but he pressed past it.
---
Name: Might Guy
Title: Leaf's Noble Green Beast, Bushy Brows Sensei
Sex: Male
Age: 26
Level: 241
Health: 3600/3600
Chakra Reserve: 980/980
Vitality: 360
Chakra: 98
Strength: 450
Agility: 431
Perception: 72
Intelligence: 38
Ailments:
Emotions: Jovial, Relaxed, Curious
Lore: Might Guy, son of Might Duy, the Eternal Genin, is one of the world's most capable Taijutsu users. Sharing the same disposition as his father, being wholly untalented in Gen- and Ninjutsu, meant that Guy had to put in thrice the effort of his peers if he wanted to become a ninja. And Guy succeeded where others didn't, stunning classmates and, his then rival, Kakashi Hatake. Able to open all of the Eight Gates makes Might Guy an absolute authority in physical battles.
---
Guy unhanded him and went back into one of the tents. Cole rubbed his eyes, throbbing in a familiar pain.
Yuya poked him with her elbow and showed him a sleazy smirk. "Got a crush on the old man or why are you looking so starstruck?" Cole just rolled his eyes and smiled past the wincing. "Yup, dude got hair you could only dream of." He said and rubbed at her bristly sides. Yuya kicked his shin. He yelped.
Team 7 and Team Guy spilled out of their ealier hiding spots, alert and moving with purpose. Sakura and Tenten bundled piles of cloth into make-shift ottomans and passed them around for everyone to sit on. Lee was whacking away at flint above a prepared firepit, filled with woodchips and dry branches. Naruto was fidgeting, looking at the sky and back at him, and snacking on a mixed bag of dried fruit. Neji and Sasuke decided on staring holes into Cole, without any tact whatsoever, while sitting in meditative silence. Sakura radiated curiosity but was otherwise fixated on Sasuke. A disheveled Tazuna looked out of his tent, met his eyes, huffed with disinterest and receded back inside.
Sitting across the crackling fire with her legs crossed, Tenten was the first to breach the silence.
"Didn't think we'd see you again so soon, Mr. - No... Cole." Was it reproach he heard in her voice? He wasn't sure what it could be about if it was. Tenten was described as an easy-going person and collected individual. Although Cole did not want to rely on the series for interpersonal stuff more than necessary, he believed the outline of their characters were well and truly alive in this reality. Had she felt that offended by him pulling away when she tried to use a diagnostic jutsu? The heat, reminiscent of lit coals in his skull, was fanned to a blaze. 'Can't do this too often.' He cried in his mind.
---
Name: Tenten
Title:
Sex: Female
Age: 13
Level: 36
Health: 310/310
Chakra Reserve: 290/290
Vitality: 35
Chakra: 29
Strength: 41
Agility: 46
Perception: 38
Intelligence: 29
Ailments:
Emotions: Curious, Upset, Relieved
Lore: Born into the household of a commoner family, Tenten didn't have the resources nor the assistance of her forebearers to help her along the ninja path. Although her idol is Tsunade, one of the three legendary Sannin, her own healing talent has proven insufficient to follow in Tsunade's footsteps. Instead, through her prowess in Tai- and Kenjutsu, Tenten was assigned to Team Guy, a specialist group of physical fighters. Now she shines as a young kunoichi proficient in all types of weapons.
---
For once his intuition was on the money - and he was also deeply impressed. He debated whether or not he should be straight-forward and ask what the issue was, but Lee preempted his question with one of his own.
"Hey Tenten, how do you and Naruto know... Mr. Cole?" He let Tenten explain their short encounter while he focused on something else.
It was... surreal to Cole, seeing so many members of the main-cast assembled, and they looked just like in the anime. Sure, they weren't animated, but the essence was the same. Lee, in his greenback-coloured onesie, had features that were a combination of latin-american and central-asian; lightly tanned, almond-shaped eyes and a bit more brawny than someone like, say, Sasuke. The kid had boy-band features and Cole could easily understand how teen girls would crush on him. A thin face, slick hair, a sharp chin and mono-lidded, jet-black eyes. Cole suppressed the emerging chuckle, Sasuke simply looked too much like the edgy antihero he was supposed to portray.
"-okage invited us in. We talked a bit about Mr. Marin's Dōjutsu and that was the gist of it. Who she is and why they are here, no idea." Cole caught on to the tail-end of the explanation where Tenten waved in the general direction of Yuya and was about to chime in, when he noticed that Neji and Sasuke were watching him more intently.
Sasuke pulled a dour face, the expression of someone that wanted to speak but was either too shy or too uppity to actually commit. Neji had no such qualms, an equally boy-band-singer looking kid, but with long, glossy brown hair and the Hyūga clans characteristic, pale-white eyes.
He addressed him with a respectful nod. "Mr. Marin, is it safe to assume your Dōjutsu is permanently active? I do not wish to insult you, but your eyes look very peculiar indeed. Moreso than even those of our Hyūga clan."
Cole waved his hand in a so-so motion. "I wouldn't even call it a Dōjutsu at this point, more an inherent trait of my eyes? Makes chakra visible, stuff like that. Besides that I'm tapping in the dark myself, so to speak." Neji hum'ed and ha'ed to himself. Naruto looked ready to rebuke and call him out on his half-truth, half-lie, but decided to keep quiet.
"Do you have any other abilities?" The Hyūga heir asked with a great measure of reluctance. Cole could very well imagine that inquring about a stranger's powers was a severe faux pas, alas, Neji's curiosity won out against social blundering.
"No, not really." Cole answered back, much to Neji's chagrin. The latter closed his eyes in a dismissive manner. 'So that's the end of that, huh.'
Yuya scoffed derisively. She nudged his side and Cole looked at her quizzically. When he didn't react to her prompting she answered in his stead. "What do you mean 'Not really'?" She actually gesticulated the quotation marks before facing the group. "I'm Yuya by the way, this dolt's training partner. And he does NOT have no other ability." Now he understood and it was too late to stop her, she was full-on blabbering now. "He has this medical jutsu, never seen anything like it. So, well, I don't know how Cole does it actually, don't know how it works. But when he does use it, there's these silver lights and everything shimmers and it's just so awesome. And he can heal, like, any injury and sickness. I'm telling you guys, he's a pro at that."
Cole felt warm around his heart at Yuya's gushing, she was like a little sister praising her big brother, it was kind of cute and he had never seen her as smug; nonetheless, Cole wanted to do nothing more than put a hand over her mouth and shut her up. He couldn't do that, not here, not now, fixing her with a withering glare would do though. The little punk ignored his baleful gaze and kept on chittering about his exploits and how he helped out her 'friends'.
Now it was Sakura and Tenten's turn to openly gawk at him. The boys looked at them with raised eyebrows, not really certain what all the fuss was about.
Feeling generous Yuya unbuckled a kunai and held it over her palm. "Here, let me show you guys." One quick motion saw the honed edge slip over her hand, parting skin, fleshy tissue and a tenth of an inch of muscle underneath. The wound began bubbling with blood, lapping over her palm and dripping in large droplets onto her lap. Only a tiny wince indicated her pain.
The thought to leave her bleeding, because of his selfish - and also foolish - desire to keep a low-profile, didn't even cross his mind. He craddled her hand in both of his, invoking Lay on Hands while mumbling: "Why the fuck would you do that?" Its tell-tale gold and silver light discharged from his palms and wound around Yuya's hand. Hundred layers of silvery bands applied themselves to her skin and knit her flesh back together. Yuya sighed in relief and held her hand aloft, waving it around. "See! Impressive, right?"
"What?! That - how did you do that?!" Sakura exclaimed. With none of the reservation Cole had expected of her, she leaped over the firepit and looked over and around Yuya's hand.
The girl in question had become even smugger through the attention. "Told ya." It was meant as much for them as it was for him.
Cole ignored the jibe and used the distraction to fire up another Insight. He filed away how different the burden could be depending on the individual it was used on, in this case a warmth that lacked the prior bite.
---
Name: Sakura Haruno
Title:
Sex: Female
Age: 12
Level: 27
Health: 230/230
Chakra Reserve: 260/260
Vitality: 23
Chakra: 26
Strength: 32
Agility: 24
Perception: 18
Intelligence: 38
Ailments:
Emotions: Curious, Fascinated, Astonished
Lore: Sakura Haruno, daughter of the genin Kizashi Haruno and Mebuki Haruno, is a young and talented kunoichi, moving with great strides along the path of a medical-nin. She is the pride of the Haruno household and doted upon by her parents. Although calm and collected on the surface, Sakura is prone to emotional outbursts, this is often times the case when her crush, Sasuke Uchiha, is concerned. As of now she is an untested kunoichi with great potential.
---
"That is new indeed."
Kakashi stepped into their little sitting-circle, dutifully shaving tinder from a branch into a small metal cylinder.
"But I am more interested in how you want to 'help' us. No offense, but your combat abilities are... lackluster at best." After being beaten time and time again by Yuya, it wasn't as painful to hear his weakness spelled out as he thought it would be. "Your medical jutsu is good and all, but I'll go out on a leg and assume you won't be able to use it in battle. Right?"
Cole fade out Sakura's vociferous Q&A with Yuya. He was already so deep in on their mission he might as well be honest, and keeping his obstinance for much longer was a sure-fire way to get in Kakashi's bad books.
"Information, that's what I can provide."
Kakasi smiled in that peculiar manner of his as he slumped onto a proffered seat, unfazed as always. He screwed the cylinder shut and set it aside.
"Information, huh." His tone was flat. "I knew some eyes were on us before we left, but I never took you for somebody to have such a wide-scale network of informants, Mr. Marin. Regardless, what kind of information are we talking about?" Kakashi fixed him gimlet-eyed and Cole realised he had been dancing on the palm of his hand the entire time.
"Since you already know about the current state of the Land of Waves governance I think it would be helpful if I told you who is pulling the strings." Cole would love to negotiate terms and conditions on which they would exchange information on as equals, alas, he was neither diplomatically inclined enough to make smart calls and analyze verbal cues, nor did he have the power to demand it in the first place.
Kakashi acceded with a short nod. "We do know that a crime lord named Gatō has overthrown the city-state of the Land of Waves with an armed band of mercenaries. Currently he is cashing in by monopolizing the commercial sector and regulating export and import. What we are missing is the exact firepower he has amassed." His inquisitive eye was all the cue he needed.
Cole reviewed his earliest memories of Naruto and estimated the number of gangmembers Gatō unveiled at the end. "His force should be in the ballpark of fifty to a hundred people, all of whom are shinobis in name, but moreso thugs and thieves. But there are a few people noteable individuals. Some of which are incredibly powerful."
At those words everyone safe Yuya perked up, even Sakura that had been stridently demanding he show her his medical jutsu again.
"And those are?" Kakashi wondered aloud.
Cole took a second to go over the characters before he answered. "There's the Demon Brothers from Kiri - don't know how they are called - they can hide in puddles and use poison-coated, bladed chains. Then we have Gatō's personal bodyguards, one is called Zōri, the other one is called... I actually don't know his name as well. But they both are proficient swordsmen. And lastly," He didn't know why he was stalling but the words were difficult to speak out loud, the admission would finalize his involvement once and for all. "There is Haku, a young and powerful shinobi with an innate talent that allows him to create incredibly durable ice mirrors, through which he can instantaneously switch loactions... And then we have Zabuza Momochi, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and S-Class Missing-nin."
The silence was deafening, but the relief that flooded his veins was just as absolving.
Kakashi made a choking noise, one that shook everyone free from the quietness, before collecting himself. "Mr. Marin, how sure are you about this information?" The accusatory tone really hit home what type of news he had just dropped in their laps.
"One hundred percent sure."
The masked shinob ran a hand through his hair and sighed explosively. For the first time since Cole had met him Kakashi was speechless.
Kakashi leaned back on one arm and turned towards Guy, who was meditating under his lean-to in a practiced stance. "What do you think?" He asked.
Guy kept his eyes closed but regaled them all with his trade-mark grin, radiating a certain je ne sais quoi, an aura of friendliness perhaps. Whatever it was it lend his words an air of reliability. "I'm always up for a challenge! Better yet if we get to help some poor folk out!"
"Ugh, I knew you would say that." Kakashi muttered and turned back around to face Cole, utterly sober. "Now, Mr. Marin, you will tell us everything you know and in turn I won't even ask where that knowledge comes from. Alright?"
Cole gave the intense ninja a mute nod.