A strange new life

3.10

Pain like I had never felt before burned me from the inside. It was agony on a whole new level. It felt like every cell of my body was on fire, that they had a will of their own, and that the will was to destroy me, inflict as much pain as possible.

It went on I don’t know for how long, until it stopped. Night had fallen in the Forest of Death.

I still couldn’t move. Whatever Orochimaru did removed my ability to control my own body. I was pretty sure it was related to the seals he mentioned, but I didn’t have the time to analyze that now. The agony would return, I could already feel the onset of pain starting again. I couldn’t move, and the solution seemed so obvious I wanted to slap myself.

For years, I’ve used chakra threads, manipulating things close and far. I never gave much thought to which branch of techniques used threads: puppet techniques. I even saw Kankuro manipulating threads near him, trying to trip Naruto.

I pushed my threads out, wrapped them around my arms, legs, waist, head. Like a shambling corpse, my body rose up from where I had fallen. With that same shambling movement, I collected the boys. Naruto wasn’t hurt, Kyuubi regeneration already healed the injuries. Sasuke burned hot with fever. I crawled down the tree, dragged the boys away from the site of the battle, not too far, time was running out. I found a nook in the base of one great tree. Placed Naruto and Sasuke there. I laid traps around the place. Barriers, explosives, tripwire. All manner of things I could think of.

I would have done more. But I didn’t have the time. I barely managed to return to our hidden place when pain took me, and the world went hazy again.

Obviously, Orochimaru had done something to me. A diagram populated my mind. It described a fuinjutsu work, one meant to be inscribed on one person’s bones. Foreign knowledge, implanted directly in my brain. From that, I learned what seals Orochimaru had talked about. That diagram described the seals in my bones. It was used to restrain, to reinforce, to control, and so much more.

The man’s parting words finally made sense. Orochimaru had given me a blueprint of a door. Gave me the key I needed to open it. But the door had no lock to fit the key. He also put a timer on my bones that would kill me if I didn’t open the lock. I just had to break the fuinjutsu code and craft a lock for the door. Something I had been trying for years without success.

I couldn’t say how much time passed. Between the pain, agony and desperation, I was barely coherent enough to notice my surroundings. There were some moments of lucidity between all the pain. I remember checking on Sasuke and Naruto, adding more traps. I remember something triggered one of my traps, the explosion deafening me for a moment. Mostly, I was focused on breaking the code.

Time and time again I tried. But it was just re-hashing previous attempts, trying to fit squares to circles. My mind got ever more entangled with trying to find which wire to pluck between an infinite number of them.

I think, for a time, I might have gone feral. Or maybe my mind retreated and the body took over. I couldn’t say. I had impressions of things, of events, but no real memory of anything. It was an unending nightmare. I was trapped inside a genjutsu. I could find no other explanation for it.

Three things stood out from that period.

I woke up with hands around my neck. My vision was hazy. There was a girl sat on top of me squeezing the life out of me, not in a good way. Long hair, manic eyes, army camouflage-ish pants. A distorted musical sound on her forehead protector. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the other Otogakure-nin hold an insensate Sasuke up by the throat. I don’t know what happened after. Something inside of me broke. I yelled. For the first time ever there was sound. Hoarse, guttural and not at all like human. It felt like the whole forest answered to my call. I still couldn’t move, but I lashed out, pierced, perforated, ripped the enemies to bits. I only stopped when I felt warm blood dripping on my face. I gathered my allies, huddled again inside my hiding nook. The world returned to pain.

That moment taught me something I should have realized years ago. There was another seal in my throat. One that I cracked by sheer willpower alone. I had always taken fuinjutsu as route memorization and building blocks. My assumption was that I was just missing the blocks I needed to make my own seals work. The part I missed all this time — and I knew it had been intentional like Orochimaru said — was the will component. Different seals looked like different languages and logic because they were. Each seal master created their own function through sheer willpower. That revelation spurred me into another hazy period of trying to break the lock.

I remember others arrived. A green blob tried to approach. I lashed out. The green blob was fast, but I was the forest. It tried to flee, I didn’t let it, or I tried not to. I managed one stab before more blobs joined. A pink blob, a white blob. I lashed harder. Things exploded. The three blobs retreated.

I was so close now. I cobbled together a cumbersome thing of a lock. Big, ugly, inefficient when compared to the pristine door. I tried the key. It fit, but still the lock wouldn’t turn. But I knew the problem now. It wouldn’t be long until I finished it. But again, the world wouldn’t leave me alone.

Another blob, yellow and purple, approached. It was slow, nonthreatening, almost like it was afraid. The frustration of being interrupted so close to freeing myself showed up. I yelled, or better say I howled. It didn’t sound like a person. The yellow and purple retreated. I heard a sound. The wind turned, brought new smells, a particular mix of flowers. Wait. I knew that scent.

My head turned into the blob’s direction, my hands pushed out, questing for the source of the fragrance. The blob approached. It had a fuzzy shape of a person. Someone I knew. Fingers treaded around my extended hands. The world held still for a moment. I plugged the last building block of the lock, fit in the key, opened the door.

The haziness vanished. The dream became clear.

Ino knelt in front of me. Held my hand. The place around didn’t look like anything I remembered. Roots, branches and all manner of wood created something that looked like a demented madman’s dream. Body parts dangled from the suspended wood: a head here, three arms there, a foot on the other side of the clearing.

But the nightmare was over. I solved the lock. I was free. A smile broke on my face. Ino shuddered, but didn’t let go. But then again, this was a genjutsu induced nightmare. Ino could be excused. A devilish idea came to mind. I was all for it. When else would I have the chance to snog my favorite female cast if not in a dream?

“You were always my favorite in the entire show, Ino-chan,” I croaked out, blood falling out of my mouth with my words. “So pretty. You’re just too good for Sai.” I pushed forward, hugged a freaked out Ino. Her spooked face looked cute. “I’m going to wake up from this nightmare now. I’m glad I saw you at the end.” I pushed up, pecked her lips. I chickened out and went for a peck instead of a full snog. Left a bloody smear there. Nightmare Ino could deal, I was sure. I rested my head on her shoulder and let go. Darkness took me. It was time to wake up.

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