The sound of pages turning was echoing in the lab. Enkai was skimming through every piece of research data, as beads of sweat rolled down from his face.
He had never been to a modern-day lab in his previous life so he didn't know how it looked, but in this lab, there were all kinds of things; thesis papers, experiments, research data, books, chemicals, batteries and even computers.
At one point Enkai had to run back to Honoka to get a few empty scrolls just so he could make some storage scrolls to store all these things.
It was a good call to not memorise Honoka's memories, it seems. When Enkai tried to read Honoka's memories he was surprised by just how much data there was.
So he chose the easy way out and decided to just have her write all of it, that way; he wouldn't have to spend time copying and organising all those memories and he would be able to pilage all this juicy, juicy lab data faster. After all, the threat of Kumo ninjas entering here is always there.
...
About half an hour later, Enkai was finally done with all the data collection. Feeling happy, he went near Honoka.
This was his first time talking to someone from his age group and she seemed to be an extrovert. He was an introvert and for that reason, he always liked hanging around with extroverts because with them around, the atmosphere never gets awkward.
He sat next to her, his sharingan still active.
He was checking to see if the kunoichi was sabotaging him or not but when he saw there weren't any chakra signatures coming from the written paper he was relieved.
There was always the chance of her writing misinformation but he would just check her memories to see if she was doing anything like that or not after she was done.
He looked at the kunoichi and asked her, "Say, how did you even get here? Aren't Uzumakis supposed to be dead?"
Honoka looked at him once before just continuing to write, After a few moments of writing she opened her mouth, "Not all Uzumakis are dead, you would be surprised by how many aren't. It's just that...most of us are hiding or being hidden."
Enkai felt a hint of rage in her voice, nonetheless, he wanted answers, "Being hidden? By whom, Konoha?"
"Being hidden as war prisoners and lab rats." Honoka let out a deep breath.
'This is new.' Enkai thought to himself, as he never knew the backstory of the Uzumaki clan, so he asked "Lab rats? Why were they being experimented on, and what for?"
"Because of our bloodline limit; Superior physique, vitality, longevity and a chakra reserve unfathomable to the mediocre. Where else can you find that, if not the Uzumakis?" Honoka smiled dryly.
"As expected of the power-hungry raikage I guess." Enkai shook his head; looks like Orochimaru and Amado aren't the only mad scientists in this world.
"Heh, just Kumo? Every single village that participated in that massacre took in war prisoners. I am sure every one of those villages had similar plans." She let out a mock chuckle then continued, "You know what? Even Konoha is probably involved in some dark experiments. That's just how our world is; dark and cold."
"Just how many villages attacked your clan that day?" Enkai asked, now genuinely curious as to what made the shinobi villages gang up on a single clan.
"How many you ask? Heh. Every. Single. Village. Attacked us except for the five great villages which kept konoha in check so they wouldn't be able to support us." Honoka said while grinding her teeth in raw rage.
"Why...Why was Uzushiogakure attacked so unfairly?" Enkai asked, none of this was ever shown in the anime or manga.
"Haaah...Many factors were involved but, it's mostly because everybody feared our power." Honoka said as she took a deep breath.
"What do you mean?" Enkai raised his eyebrows.
"Open that," Honoka said while pointing her finger towards one of the already-finished scrolls.
Enkai picked it up and opened it, and the first thing he saw was the Uzumaki's symbol along with something written beside it, "The Eddy's Seal?" he tilted his head as if he was confused.
"Yeah, it's a technique only someone with the Uzumaki lineage can perform. This jutsu lets you seal anything that has less chakra than the user, on the condition that the user is making physical contact with it. Pretty cool right?" Honoka looked at him who had an awed look and chuckled, "That is one of the many fuinjutsus that makes us scary to the rest of the world."
"Do you have enough paper to write those? If you don't then just tell me, and I will strip a tree and make paper out of it just for you." Enkai said while looking at her with hopeful eyes, earning a laugh from Honoka, who looked at enkai and thought he was still a child.
"Sorry to break your little heart, but I don't know all of them. In uzushiogakure there are lots of different types of fuinjutsus and factions based on that; I only know barrier and sealing fuinjutsus, for healing, offence, speed, and utility type fuinjutsus you would have to ask other Uzumakis." Honoka, put her head down, knowing how he would probably never be able to find them even if he tried.
"Oh, it's such a shame." Noticing the shift in the mood, Enkai decided to change the topic. "So, How did you end up here?"
"I was one of the many war prisoners taken by Kumo. I happen to be trapped in this god-forsaken island because I know a fair bit of fuinjutsu." Honoka said while finishing up a scroll and picking up another one.
"What happened to others?" Enkai asked, curious about his clan members.
"They..." Honoka hesitated to say it to a child, but then steeled herself and said, "The females were forced into having children with kumogakure shinobis so that their children can awaken our abilities. As for the males, they were tortured for our knowledge."
Huffff..!!!
Enkai sucked in a deep breath, his stoic face hiding the turmoil of emotions he was feeling. Maybe it was because he had Uzumaki blood running through his veins or maybe it was because of his feelings as a modern member of society.
He didn't like what he heard, at all.
Enkai had to look away from Honoka's direction so she couldn't see any emotion that might leak out of his face. In doing so, he unintentionally turned to look towards where the destroyed entrance of the lab was.
!!
Because his sharingan was active he saw multiple chakra signatures standing behind the door, preparing to break through the door.
He turned his head towards Honoka and asked softly, "Honoka, do you want to get out of this island?"
"...What?" Honoka asked, frowning.
"I said, do you want to get out of this island and go to the mainland?" Enkai elaborated.
Honoka looked at the hopeful eyes of Enkai and said dejectedly, "You know...The raikage doesn't move alone there are probably dozens of shinobis waiting outside-"
"Hundreds." Enkai Interrupted Honoka.
"Right, hundreds, even better. So are you confident in beating hundreds of kumo shinobis?" Honoka rolled her eyes.
"No, but I am confident in getting us out of here." He said, as he started packing the finished scrolls and papers, still buck naked.
"..." Honoka looked at him for a few seconds. To be honest, Honoka knew that both of them were going to die here.
Even though Enkai is saying that he can get out, there is no possible way to get out of here. Even if there were, they would still be stuck at the coast of the island because two people are just not enough to pilot a ship that can sail them towards the mainland. That is considering they did manage to steal a ship under the nose of the Kumo Nins.
As for herself? The Kumo ninjas kept her alive because she was 'useful' at keeping the chimaera at bay. But considering that all the data of the lab is gone and the lab itself is in ruins; she was sure they won't be able to continue this project anymore.
They will probably play with her until satisfied and then kill her. The reason she was writing her fuinjutsus was honestly because she wanted to leave something behind after her death.
But looking at the hopeful eyes of Enkai, which were very different from any Uchiha she had ever seen, she couldn't say any of that and ended up nodding hesitantly.
"Great!" Enkai exclaimed and quickly stood up. He grabbed her wrist and also pulled her up, while also throwing some rasengans where all the research data he stole from were being kept.
"H-Hey, what are you doing?!"
"Hush, The Kumo ninjas are about to enter soon, We have to hide somewhere," Enkai said, as he quickly stored all the scrolls and ink pots.
"Where will we hide? There is no possible way to hide inside this lab." Honoka said in a quiet tone. To which, Enkai just looked towards a certain something.
"What do you..." Honoka was about to ask something but then she had a sudden realisation, "Wait, no, eww. I would rather di-"
She wanted to say a lot of things but Enkai just closed her mouth by shoving a scroll in it and then dragged her.
...
Boom!
A huge explosion shook the insides of the laboratory, as debris and dust flew everywhere.
When the dust settled, the silhouette of multiple Kumo Shinobis started showing up. In front of them was a blonde-haired kunoichi.
This was Samui, as usual, she had a cold and aloof expression on her face. That expression changed though, when she saw the lying raikage.
"Raikage-sama!" She quickly ran towards him and checked his vitals. He wasn't breathing, nor was his heart beating. "Medics! Call the Medic Nins, right now! All of you inspect the area and tell me what happened here."
Even though Samui was visibly shaken after looking at the raikage she still gave the appropriate orders.
"Samui-sama, we're here!" It didn't take long for the medic-nin to arrive.
They quickly checked his vitals and also declared him clinically dead. The only thing they could do now was try to resuscitate him.
They quickly started preparing and soon, Samui saw one of the medics sitting on top of him while pushing his hands on the raikage's chest.
Samui, who thought this was very disrespectful, was about to stop them from disrespecting the dead when she heard something.
Coff, Coff!
She saw the raikage coughing painfully. She thanked god and was about to approach him when the medic ninjas stopped her and said that he was in a very critical condition and needed to be sent to Kumogakure immediately.
Samui wanted to say a lot of things but in the end, only nodded seriously.
Then she was about to leave to escort raikage to Kumogakure when one of the shinobis approached her.
"What is it?" Samui asked in urgency.
"I am here to make my report." The shinobi said, wanting to explain the possible events that might have happened here. But Samui interrupted him,
"Save it for later, the raikage is our priority." Samui can always have the report later.
"Then what do you suggest we do with t-that?" The shinobi stuttered while pointing at something.
Samui, whose vision followed where the shinobi was pointing, widened her eyes and took a step back. "...What even is that?" Even though Samui knew something top secret was going on here she didn't know what it was, so this shook her greatly.
She felt an instinctive fear when she looked at the giant chimaera. She looked around her and it seemed everybody was slightly shaken by the dead chimaera.
Noticing everybody's fear, she took on her aloof face again and said "Leave it." in a loud enough voice that almost everybody in the lab heard it.
Then she continued, "We're getting out of here. Secure whatever you can and evacuate this place."
Then she followed the medic nins who were carrying the raikage. Soon afterwards, the rest of the shinobis also started leaving the place.
Usually, they would investigate the whole area to see anything, but treating the raikage was of priority. It didn't help that all the scientists were dead making it impossible to tell what happened here.
...
A few hours later, the mouth of the corpse twisted. It moved, it shivered and then it opened its mouth – To be precise, someone opened its mouth and came out of it.
A naked thirteen-year-old boy is followed by a disgusted Kunoichi.
"Eww...We're never doing it, ever again." She said with a very disgusted face as the fresh, sticky saliva of the chimaera was still on her.
"Well, sure." He said before both of them disappeared. Honoka's body flickered while Enkai blinked out of there.
There weren't any guards patrolling the area, so getting out of there was relatively easy.
When they were at the base of the volcano, Honoka noticed Enkai was trying to climb up the volcano instead of going down. So she asked, "Hey, what are you doing? If we want to sneak into their ship then now is the best time, when they are busy with the raikage."
"Who said anything about sneaking into kumo ships?" Enkai smirked before he started climbing up again.
Honoka was sceptical about what Enkai was about to do but still decided to follow him. Even though she wasn't completely out of danger yet, she was starting to trust Enkai a bit.
She followed him for a while and finally, she saw a bird nest in the distance. She looked at Enkai who was already standing there waiting for her.
Soon though, her face paled when she saw the bird nest up close. It was gigantic.
"We're not going to sail out of here. We are going to fly out of here." Enkai said with a confident smirk.
Kei-Kei-Kei-Kei!
As if on cue, she saw a huge bird descending from the sky.
"Hey, Now is not the time for jokes you know...we should probably run-" She wanted to say a lot of things but when she saw the bird landing on her nest and staring at Enkai, she just quieted down.
"Birdie, I have fulfilled my part of the contract. Soon enough, all these humans will leave this place. Now it's time for you to fulfil your part." Enkai said while looking up.
Enkai truly never intended to do anything to the lab. But because so many kumo shinobis were patrolling around the island it became impossible for him to make summoning contracts.
Left with no choice, Enkai decided to climb up on the volcano, and lo and behold this eagle and its family were living there.
Enkai tried to make a contract with it. And it said that it would only make a contract with Enkai if he managed to drive away all these humans from its hunting ground, which was the whole Island.
This prompted Enkai to enter the Lab and destroy everything beyond repair. Now that he had fulfilled his contract, he had asked the birdie to fulfil its part.
The majestic eagle nodded once as if it understood what Enkai said and then bowed its head down for Enkai to climb up.
Enkai was about to climb up but then he remembered something and turned around. He extended his hand out and smiled, "Come on, what are you waiting for?"
Honoka, who thought she would die in the worst way imaginable, became teary when she saw this.
As the sun rose behind Enkai, for a moment, just for a single moment. To Honoka, he looked different than a boy, he looked more than just a boy. Looking at the boy's smile, she also smiled and grabbed his hand.
When they were up, the eagle took off.
"Hey, I just realised, I never even asked you your name." Honoka, who was sitting behind the naked enkai, asked as she stared at the rising sun.
"Enkai, you can call me Enkai," Enkai said, without stating his surname.
"Say, how did you end up in the lab?" Honoka asked, leaning her head forward curiously.
"It's a long story," Enkai said,
"We've got a long journey ahead of us, don't we?" Honoka retorted, causing Enkai to sigh.
"My memories before I turned seven are hazy and the last thing I remember is how a Konoha chunin was attacking me..."