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Discarded Prologue
Jun. 13th, 2020 08:07 pm The old first scene from Celestial Fix, where Post! A Conversation Overhead By a Prisoner Faking Unconsciousness Team Seven Discovers a Problem.
This whole bit no longer fits, as I have moved the initial incident to a joint Mission with Mist, and the Time Gradient between verses being so High initially. But I eh, it's fun and short.
-----
‘You’ll join your ancestors in their graves’ was supposed to be a vague and melodramatic threat, not something the lunatic seal-maker could actually do.
Shikako woke up in the Nara compound woods, under a tall tree and not thinking too hard about the thin layer of dirt and moss covering her clothes. After using the modified scent-containment trick to rid herself of the impromptu earth-bath, she started back toward the human-inhabited part of the village at a run.
She focused on her chakra sense and immediately picked out Naruto’s overwhelming sunshine at the foot of the Hokage’s mountain, Kakashi across the village in the Hatake Clan compound, Sai surprisingly near Kakashi and already moving toward him. Shikako sighed in relief and reached out toward the Uchiha district, searching for the familiar spark of her last team-mate. Logically he’d be in the Naka shrine... Or the river? She didn’t sense Sasuke’s active chakra anywhere in Konoha, and there was no way he’d dare be hiding it from her after what just happened.
Team Seven converged on the Uchiha Compound like agitated grasshoppers, bounding over rooftops and trees. Behind the shrine are rows of memorials with their ashes, but no Sasuke. They quarter through the whole place to make sure, and then down into the hidden room under the shrine in case the staring-at rock counts somehow. They come back up into the fading light of afternoon and stare at each other in growing dismay.
Naruto is the first to put voice to his concern. “But Sasuke’s family buries their dead in those little jar things, you know? What if that means he got chopped into into tiny bits and stuck inside with them?”
Shikako doesn’t face palm, quite. Kakashi blinks.
Sai tilts his head and bends to open the nearest urn, checking for fresh Uchiha mixed with the old ashes. “It would appear not.”
“Where would we be without your willingness to test every theory, Sai-kun?” Kakashi drawls.
“Lounging the mud like princesses?” Sai ventures.
Shikako cuts in before this can turn into another contest of inside jokes- None of them were present for Mission ‘Fainted Princess’ but the reminder of that fiasco brings a few relevant facts to mind. “The Uchiha have cremated their dead for centuries- when they could. We should check MIA reports against Sasuke’s family tree to see if there’s anyone who may have been buried by a battle.”
Kakashi nods but his casual posture shifts, betraying his own worry. “The most likely places are going to be where we fought with Rock during the wars.”
“I guess we’ll need to be extra diplomatic, then.”
“Or extra sneaky!” Naruto shouts.
-----------
This whole bit no longer fits, as I have moved the initial incident to a joint Mission with Mist, and the Time Gradient between verses being so High initially. But I eh, it's fun and short.
-----
‘You’ll join your ancestors in their graves’ was supposed to be a vague and melodramatic threat, not something the lunatic seal-maker could actually do.
Shikako woke up in the Nara compound woods, under a tall tree and not thinking too hard about the thin layer of dirt and moss covering her clothes. After using the modified scent-containment trick to rid herself of the impromptu earth-bath, she started back toward the human-inhabited part of the village at a run.
She focused on her chakra sense and immediately picked out Naruto’s overwhelming sunshine at the foot of the Hokage’s mountain, Kakashi across the village in the Hatake Clan compound, Sai surprisingly near Kakashi and already moving toward him. Shikako sighed in relief and reached out toward the Uchiha district, searching for the familiar spark of her last team-mate. Logically he’d be in the Naka shrine... Or the river? She didn’t sense Sasuke’s active chakra anywhere in Konoha, and there was no way he’d dare be hiding it from her after what just happened.
Team Seven converged on the Uchiha Compound like agitated grasshoppers, bounding over rooftops and trees. Behind the shrine are rows of memorials with their ashes, but no Sasuke. They quarter through the whole place to make sure, and then down into the hidden room under the shrine in case the staring-at rock counts somehow. They come back up into the fading light of afternoon and stare at each other in growing dismay.
Naruto is the first to put voice to his concern. “But Sasuke’s family buries their dead in those little jar things, you know? What if that means he got chopped into into tiny bits and stuck inside with them?”
Shikako doesn’t face palm, quite. Kakashi blinks.
Sai tilts his head and bends to open the nearest urn, checking for fresh Uchiha mixed with the old ashes. “It would appear not.”
“Where would we be without your willingness to test every theory, Sai-kun?” Kakashi drawls.
“Lounging the mud like princesses?” Sai ventures.
Shikako cuts in before this can turn into another contest of inside jokes- None of them were present for Mission ‘Fainted Princess’ but the reminder of that fiasco brings a few relevant facts to mind. “The Uchiha have cremated their dead for centuries- when they could. We should check MIA reports against Sasuke’s family tree to see if there’s anyone who may have been buried by a battle.”
Kakashi nods but his casual posture shifts, betraying his own worry. “The most likely places are going to be where we fought with Rock during the wars.”
“I guess we’ll need to be extra diplomatic, then.”
“Or extra sneaky!” Naruto shouts.
-----------
AU half a step to the left
Obito: So, what's a nice kid like you doing in a cave like this?
Sasuke: Staging a coup and escape, wanna join?
