23 23: Kaboom

She only glanced around the room for a moment before activating her Byakugan. Within three hundred meters, which was almost the entirety of their small village, she could see around fifty chakra signatures that stood out from the civilians.

'So those are all the Konoha shinobi. And there's no commander just as we predicted, good.'

She noticed that most of the civilian signatures were present in their own homes. She supposed that there must have been a lockdown in effect or something. At least she couldn't see any unfortunate sights that she had been expecting to see from the history of her old world, such as one of the Konoha chakra signatures being on top of a civilian one inside a bedroom perhaps. She sighed with relief that at least they had some level of decency instead of just hunting for attractive young people when they got bored, as occupying forces tended to do back on earth. It seemed that the culture of this world really was different.

But something wasn't right.

'Where's Nagato? Or even his parents?' She realised that Nagato's whole family was missing.

'Shit... my memories are prickling at me, what the hell am I missing?! I need to get over there, now!'

She exited the basement and noticed that someone had been using her home very recently. There were a couple of pieces of Konoha iconography here and there. There was even a headband left hanging off the back of a chair.

She ignored them. She doubted that her family would ever be able to return to this place anyways... It was upsetting, but that was just how it was. She pulled a waterproof cloak out of her scroll and clipped it around her neck.

Leaving the house, she immediately ducked into an alleyway and tracked her surroundings on her way to Nagato's family home. She could go much faster, but a little known fact about the Body Flicker Jutsu was that it created a small burst of chakra that even a half-decent sensor could potentially lock on to. She didn't trust her current stealth abilities to pull her through if it was detected, even after her practice in the summoning world.

Fortunately, there were only two small chakra signatures near her destination, likely just Genin, so if she needed to run from there it shouldn't be as big of an issue as it would've been in the center of town.

Stopping for a moment to let a patrolling shinobi pass by, she continued slowly stalking her way through the town. Passing a nearby bar she could hear a party taking place inside.

'So they've substituted sating sexual desire for getting black-out drunk in this world, eh? Works for me. And possibly better for the wellbeing of the town's residents anyways.'

As she started to leave the town's main borders, heading for Nagato's isolated house, a sudden twisting sensation was felt in her gut. The dread was intensifying.

'What's going on here?'

Ducking around the side of the building she let her vision focus-in on the two people in the backyard and she could hear them speaking while she looked through the walls at the area around them.

"What a fucking waste of life..." The one on the left began speaking.

"You've been repeating that for the past few days now." The one on the right responded, "I know they were your friends, but they got themselves killed by directly disobeying orders and attacking these two civilians."

"I know, damn it! But still, how did a kid even kill them like that?! They had no bleeding wounds so it could only have been the broken bones... But how the hell did a kid break their bones?!" He shouted back.

While they were talking, Seija slipped around into the nearby bushes right behind them. She wouldn't have been able to get a clear line of sight at them otherwise.

"It's just not fair man! I bet these civilians struck first anyways, those guys wouldn't have screwed up that badly unless they were attacked! It was dark, anyone could've been hiding in this place!" The left man continued his rant.

"Now you're just being unreasonable-"

Seija didn't hear the rest of what he said. Her eyes had locked on to what the two were standing in front of. She hadn't realised it when she was around the corner because the Byakugan can still only show one angle, even if it can see through walls.

Graves.

A pair of shallow graves with wooden markers hammered into the ground above them.

'No... this is...' Seija didn't want to see it. It would've been too dark to read as it was, but her Byakugan could see the outline of the words because they were carved into it, not painted on.

'Mom, Fuso... Dad, Ise.'

The itch in her eyes returned.

'Why? Why those two?! What did they do to deserve this?'

A memory surge finally triggered, bringing with it images of Nagato's Rinnegan and a pair of Konoha Genin killing his parents in front of him after Fuso and Ise tried to attack the two Genin that invaded their home.

'I... I could've predicted this... I could've stopped it!' Her heart tightened in her chest as the itching grew worse.

"[Seija, this was out of your contr-]" Firewall was interrupted before it could finish.

"I swear, Kazuto, you don't know anything! These fuckers' little brat killed my friends!" The left man, Denji, kicked down Fuso's grave marker, knocking it out of the ground.

The itching stopped in an instant. Seija's vision sharpened and the rain seemed to slow down around her. Her Byakugan was automatically deactivated.

"Denji! You can't jus-"

Seija saw red and launched herself out of the greenery, leaping forwards into the air so that her short limbs could reach. Her kick connected with the back of the right man's head, knocking him out.

He managed to choke out a gasp before he hit the ground.

Denji's eyes went wide as he began to turn around but was stopped by Seija using the right man as a springboard and lashing out with her hand to grip his face.

Now... Seija didn't plan for what would happen next. She had planned to slam his head into the ground, knocking him out.

Instead, the moment her palm connected to his head...

A flash of light.

*Boom*

And for a split second she blacked out as everything above his neck detonated into a bloody-red mist.

- - -

Seija landed heavily on the man's decapitated corpse.

'Wh-What... I... What did I just-'

"[Seija. Calm down.]"

She stopped to let the shaking slow down a little. Looking down at her smoking hand and the headless body beneath her... she could see everything, even in this darkness. She would remember everything. She considered it a great stroke of luck that she had not really seen his face, just a glimpse between her fingers.

'I killed him...' She forcefully suppressed the sudden feeling of sickness with a flow of medical chakra until it faded after a few moments.

"[It was bound to happen eventually. You know how this world is.]"

'I know that, damn it! I just... I thought it would be later than this... and I thought I knew how to hold back! What even was that?!'

"[Analyze the chakra pattern yourself. After you adjust to your new eyes.]"

'What?' She looked around and realised that she could see everything with better than perfect clarity, even in the darkness of this rainy night. Speaking of the rain, she finally noticed that it appeared to be moving in slow motion.

She slowly rose to her feet and picked up Fuso's grave marker, before pressing it back into the ground where it belonged. She entered the house through the unlocked back door, leaving the dead man and his unconscious comrade out in the rain.

She made her way to the bathroom and took off her mask in front of the mirror.

A pair of red eyes with three black tomoe each looked back at her.

'...Of course. I knew it was on the list, just like Steel Release was... but somehow I could just never imagine myself obtaining the Sharingan, you know?'

"[Indeed. There was another Kekkei Genkai. You used it to-]" Firewall cut itself off before stating the obvious. Maintaining her mental health was just as important as reminding her of obvious information.

'I know... thank you, Firewall.' She examined her chakra network, which was a bit harder to do without her Byakugan active, but the Sharingan could also perform this task to a lesser extent.

She quickly found the two new Kekkei Genkai settling down next to the rest. The Sharingan, which she deactivated once she found the pathways leading up to it, and another fused nature transformation. It was Earth and Lightning, her two primary elements.

'Explosion Style. As straight-forward and powerful as its name implies...'

She took a moment to re-activate her Byakugan and check the signatures of the Konoha shinobi left in the town.

'Thank god, they aren't moving over here yet. They must not have heard the explosion at this distance through the rain. Unusual that no sensors have detected the burst of chakra used for it, though. They must be part of the group that's getting drunk down there.'

She would use this chance to take a few minutes to rest her mind. She knew the living room couch was rather comfortable from all the times she visited, so she decided to lie down there for a bit. The unconscious man outside should remain so for a few hours at least, so there was no rush.

She summoned a Shadow Clone to keep watch, and let her eyes close.

- - -

"I need to find Nagato." She told to herself more than she did to Firewall as she thought that out loud. She had awoken after a mere 30 minute nap.

"[Indeed. The rain would have washed away his footprints by now though. Only scent would remain, but even that will be faint.]"

'Right. Well I have just the thing now, don't I?'

[Summoning Jutsu: Wulg Pack]

*Poof*

A team of four Wulgs appeared in Nagato's living room, taking up quite a bit of space with their long bodies. A testament to how big the creatures in her summoning realm were compared to typical summons in this world, that these four-meter-long behemoth canines would be considered 'Small Monsters' over there. Of course, certain summons from Mount Myoboku, Ryuchi Cave, and a few other places were considerably bigger than anything she'd seen so far, even including the Elder Dragon, Kushala Daora. But she was certain she would find immense creatures in her own summoning realm as well, at least eventually.

"You four. I need to find a friend of mine who likely left this place a few days ago. A boy around my age. I need your sense of smell to find him, can you do that for me?"

The lead Wulg which was slightly larger than the others nodded in response.

"Good. His bedroom is just through there, pick up the scent." She pointed to Nagato's bedroom, where she used to play with him when she would visit. 'That was years ago now...' She absent-mindedly noted.

The Wulgs filed through into the room one at a time and investigated all the different variations of scent left in there. After about a minute, the lead Wulg popped his head out and nodded to her again.

Forcing herself not to stare at the headless body, she led the Wulgs outside and they immediately began to follow the trail off into the woods, heading westwards.

Before they could get too far ahead that she would be forced to chase after them she dashed forwards, easily reaching them with the Body Flicker Jutsu and climbed up onto the leader's back, gripping the fur for stability.

The leader barely even noticed due to his size compared to her and the thickness of his fur. Soon they were away, the town disappearing behind them. They were still slower than she could run on her own, but she would've had to follow them at their pace either way, so it made no difference to just ride them instead.

'Surely Nagato can't have gone far in just a week of walking, right?' She thought to reassure herself. She wondered if she would locate him before or after he would meet up with Yahiko and Konan. She supposed she would find out whenever she got there.

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Author note:

Chapters start getting longer after this point, so I may have to extend the upload schedule from every two days to every three instead to give myself more time to write and make longer chapters.

I'm sure there are no readers whatsoever who are distraught and crying at this terrible news!

Have a nice day!