Ocean Stars Falling
Abalisk, Liangnui
Summary:
Once again, Kei's infamous (bad) luck spurs a brand new adventure. Only this time, there's no foreknowledge, a giant grumpy turtle monster not where he's supposed to be, and an ocean full of possibilities and danger in the same breath. She just knows she has to find some way to get home to Konoha.
And what is all this business about pirates, anyway?
Notes:
Some folks requested a separate posting place for Ocean Stars Falling: Ask, and ye shall receive (as long as I find the idea intriguing.)
(See the end of the work for other works inspired by this one.)
Chapter 1: Crash Standing
Summary:
Kei: Explore sun and surf.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The day dawned bright and early, as it generally did in places with topography that was flatter than a pancake. And when it came to flatness, it was hard to beat an open ocean view.
On one hand, the view of the sunrise over the waves was magnificent. On the other? I didn’t live on a coast. I didn’t live within a hundred miles of a coast, and my hometown barely had access to rivers or lakes. I lived in a glorified, overgrown military outpost that had decided to call itself a hidden village once the population got higher than a couple hundred thousand. A beach did not factor into my morning view in any way, shape, or form.
“Shit,” was all I said aloud, and my voice was immediately swallowed up by coastal winds howling over the sound of seagulls. Not that I’d tried all that hard to be heard.
I sat up in the sand, dislodging all kinds of beach debris and the occasional live crustacean. My pajamas would have probably been a lost cause after this particular adventure if they hadn’t been preemptively ruined by ninja life. I was really just sealing the fate of a T-shirt and a pair of old mission pants. So I just grimaced at the grit and started slapping loose sand from my clothes as I finally got to my feet. Bare feet. Dammit.
A different person probably would have taken the opportunity to panic. The last thing I remembered was going to sleep in my own bed, in my apartment, in my home village. Whatever the hell had happened to put me on a beach I didn’t recognize and hadn’t conjured up for Isobu’s benefit, I had clearly missed it. I wouldn’t have missed Obito’s Kamui technique firing off again, not after the last time someone had used it in my bedroom, but I couldn’t be sure how I had gotten here. Wherever “here” was.
I’d panic once I finished taking stock.
No weapons aside from my holdout? Check, since I seemed to have ended up on this random tropical beach with only whatever I’d worn to bed. I had stuck a plain kunai into a storage seal painted onto the sole of my foot—which most people would mistake for a tattoo at first glance—but that was it. I’d need to rethink my policy of what made an emergency weapon once I got back to Konoha.
Speaking of. No clue where I was? Also check. The weather and plant life—palms, weird tropical flowers—didn’t really mesh with what I’d seen of the Land of Fire’s coastlines during monsoon season. At least, I was pretty sure it was monsoon season. As for familiar chakra signatures? I couldn’t feel any chakra signatures nearby aside from mine and Isobu’s, which were sort of requirements for me to be considered alive.
Waaaaait a second.
Isobu? I knew he had to be somewhere he could hear me, or else I’d be too dead to ask. Where are you?
I am here, he responded, but I cannot see you. Everything feels...strange.
I closed my eyes and formed the Dragon seal with my fingers. Then I cast my mental net outward, trying to figure out what was throwing Isobu off...and came up with a result that made absolutely no sense.
