NOVEL NEXT Chapter 28
Jin places his hands against the heavy ground and utters, "Earth Style: Mobile core.”
The ground in front of Jin lowers by four feet, the hole is wide enough for three people--maybe four. Jin molds chakra and spews flames into the hole, the intense heats causes the walls and floor to slowly melt. Meanwhile the real Jin watches from a distance with Rito and Ayanami at his side.
“So why am I building a makeshift bath again?” Jin keeps facing in the direction of his shadow clone at work.
Ayanami looks at Jin in bewilderment and answers, “Because I want to be clean. I feel dirty… especially after what you did.”
“It wasn’t that gross.”
“The sheila’s right, mate, it was gross.” Rito enters the conversation. “You regurgitated like a thousand snakes just to make that one big snake. Then that snake spat you both out.”
“Okay--fine, it's gross…!” Jin sulks in defeat. “Anyway… your bath is ready.”
Ayanami takes a few steps to the makeshift bath and stops, she looks back at the two boys and activates her Byakugan. “Try and peep, you’ll die.”
Upon hearing Ayanami’s threat, Jin cringes and Rito facepalms as the shadow clone finishes adding water to the hole and disappears in a puff of smoke.
“Oh, please. Who do you think we are? Anime characters?”
Jin and Rito walk back to their camp while Ayanami begins to undress as she waits for the water to cool.
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It’s nightfall, everyone has bathed and are now sitting. Jin goes through the scrolls he has on hand while humming an anime song, Rito is tinkering, and both Echo and Mecha-Naruto stare into the bright flames of the campfire. Ayanami plays the the flip phone that Jin gave her, but is bored due to the fact that the only other cell phone is in Rito’s possession.
“Hey boys? What’s the hardest thing you had to deal with since reincarnating into this world?” Ayanami asks to try and start up a conversation.
Not lifting his head up from what he's doing, Rito answers, “Staying on Orochimaru’s good side so that he wouldn’t use me for his more… aggro experiments.”
Jin simply answers with, “Learning the language.”
“No way!” Ayanami gasps with disbelief, she sits up straight, giving Jin her undivided attention. “Really?”
“Yeah, really… I didn’t actually talk until my sixth birthday was right around the corner. For the first couple of years of my life, everyone thought I was either mute or had some screws loose…”
Jin takes a deep breath before continuing. “Don’t even get me started on the children and some of the adults of the Yamanaka clan.”
An awkward and gloomy mood consumes the entire area. Echo has already gone to sleep and Mecha-Naruto is now keeping watch over the group.
“Oh… I’m sincerely sorry for talking about a touchy subject--do you guys have any crushes in this world?!” Ayanami quickly changes the subject in order to lighten the mood. “I have a bit of a thing for Neji.”
“I like Hinata.” Rito puts his tools away and gets comfortable.
“What about you, Jin?”
“Oh, I… have my eye on someone…” Jin blushes as he bashfully looks away.”
“Who is it? I bet it’s Temari!” Ayanami presses further.
“While she is attractive, she scares me.”
“What about Tenten?” Rito chimes in.
“Pfffha ha ha ha!” Jin clutches his stomach, finding Rito’s question humorous.
“Ooh, what about Sakura?”
“Heh heh heh… Fuck Sakura.” Jin’s laughter quickly turns into a venomous scoff.
“Hey, how about-”
“Ayanami, let me stop you right there. The girl I like doesn’t even appear until the actual fighting starts in the war; you, Ino, and Karin are my cousins, so that immediately takes you all out of the running.” Jin uses a scroll to summon sleeping gear and tosses Ayanami and Rito each a pillow and futon.
“Better get some rest, we have a big day tomorrow. Goodnight, guys.”
“Kay, g'night.”
“Oyasumi!”
We were able to beat Indra Otsutsuki… I wonder how Swagkage and SethTheProgrammer would powerscale us? An elated Jin thinks as he closes his eyes and drifts off to sleep.
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It’s morning and Rito has been up for about two hours, training. He stands in front of one of the trees that Ayanami grew, the tree itself is dead with all of its leaves fallen and scattered in the wind. Rito stops molding chakra due to footsteps growing louder from behind him.
“Hey, Rito! I came to--what happened here?” Ayanami stops when she sees the dead tree, she slowly reaches out to touch it.
“DON’T TOUCH IT!!” Rito’s sudden shriek causes Ayanami to jump back.
“What--why?!”
“I’ll explain later, j-just… don’t touch it.”
Rito’s vague warning and body language informs Ayanami that something is wrong with the dead tree. She slowly takes a step back before turning to face the 11-year old reincarnation.
“O-okay… I just came to tell you that we’re about to leave this time period.”
“Alright, I’ll be there shortly.”
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Echo watches as Ayanami and Rito return to the rest of the group and says, “Oh good. Looks like the gang’s all here.”
“Heh heh heh… Sorry, I was testing something out and Ayanami came to get me” Rito scratches the back of his head, laughing.
Jin finishes sealing their sleeping gear back into the scroll, he stands up and faces Echo. “Well future me, shouldn’t we get moving? After all, today’s the day.”
Echo opens up his cloak to reach for Karasuki and pulls the turtle-like artifact out. Karasuki sticks his head out of its shell and looks up at Echo.
“Karasuki, send us back exactly 5 minutes before Kaguya reaches the God Tree.” Echo orders.