Night 52: Ruins

[idkmybfframen.livejournal.com]

[ from here ]

Naruto was actually surprised that he was right. There was something through the trees! It kind of looked like an old, run down town, actually.

"Sai! Sai! Look, look, I found something! There has to be something cool we can use here, right?"

Grinning from ear to ear, he turned back to face his teammate. It was a shame Sakura wasn't here to see how awesome he was tonight, but that was all right! When he told her all about it later, he'd have Sai to vouch for him!

Comments

[tsunagari.livejournal.com]

It honestly wasn't all that surprising that Naruto had found something, at least in Sai's opinion. The boy had that sort of luck. Now whether this was a good find or an incredibly dangerous one remained to be seen. He wasn't going to be at full energy for the rest of the night, but most of the initial weariness had worn off by now.

"There's a good chance of that, yes." Of course anything worthwhile was likely going to cause them some trouble to get their hands on. That was the way it always went - he would know from experience. (The giant leeches came to mind.) "Just make sure we stick together. Getting lost out here could be fatal."

[idkmybfframen.livejournal.com]

"Hey, do you think we can find weapons or stuff? All I have is one little kunai. Or! Or! Maybe we could find a way to get our chakra back! I mean, we're pretty far away from that place, right? How far do you think we have to get before it comes back?"

Naruto's excitability was meant to be encouraging, but really, even he felt like he was all over the place.

"Oh, wait, you're right, if we get lost...hm. I don't think there's any food or anything around here, but there has to be something. Otherwise what did we come out here for? Let's look around!"

[tsunagari.livejournal.com]

"Something, yes..." Though it was very possible that 'something' would reward them with sharp teeth and claws. Still, it was as good a place to search as any other, as far as he knew. He'd yet to hear anyone mention nearby ruins as being a particularly dangerous place. All the same, he'd be keeping his eyes out for zombies. This wasn't Doyleton, but one could never be too careful.

Walking further into the area, it was clear that these building's weren't too terribly old. It was more like a ghost town than the more common mental image one associated with 'ruins'. These buildings couldn't be much older than a few decades. It was possible that some of the remaining supplies (if any remained) would still be useful.

He nodded toward one that seemed to still have most of its walls standing.

[idkmybfframen.livejournal.com]

Naruto nodded back and started toward the building. The doors were already open, so at least they wouldn't have to pick a lock or bust the door open. That was a good sign, as far as Naruto was concerned.

Before he could get into the building, he saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned towards it. He was sure there was something moving over there, but when he turned to look, there was just his shadow. Huh, well, that was pretty strange.

Oh well, he was probably just imagining things!

He stepped into the building and shone his flashlight around. "Whoa! Sai! There are skeletons in here!"

[tsunagari.livejournal.com]

Stepping inside after his teammate, the frown on Sai's face only deepened. Skeletons. Maybe he should have been surprised but he wasn't. Had these people been part of some of Landel's previous experiments, or had this been a town like Doyleton at one point? Had its residents risen as zombies too, or had something else brought their downfall?

He flicked his flashlight to the wall, catching a single, not very promising phrase written there darkly. They would all burn? Who was the message addressed to? The patients? These townspeople? Landel himself?

Something creeped along the wall at the edge of the shadows around Sai's beam of light. He moved his arm, meaning to shed light on this possible new threat, but the shadow moved with the light. He flipped his flashlight around, thinking something might be crawling on the lens, but found nothing. With the world suddenly darker without the light pointed out, however, the darkness seemed to become a physical force around him. Dark hands reached to grab his own, and the flashlight fell to the ground as he was startled by this.

[idkmybfframen.livejournal.com]

[I figure we can backthread long enough to grab a couple items in the church, at least, since we don't have to move to another post.]

Naruto didn't bother to notice the writing on the wall. He tiptoed down the aisle, trying not to disturb the skeletons. What was this place, anyway? How had these people died here? It was pretty damn creepy, if you asked him.

He shined his light up to the front of the church. There was some sort of stand there, so, maybe he'd find something worth noticing up there, too? He made his way up there and reached up to steady himself on the stand.

He looked back to Sai when he heard the flashlight drop.

"Hey, what's going on?"

As he moved, the light from the flashlight moved with him. What was happening over there?

Darkness that seemed almost too dark fuzzed the edges of his vision, and he whipped his head around. Something was trying to get them! Was this like what Shikamaru could do with shadows? Who else could do this?

"Sai! There's some kind of shadow thing in here!"

[tsunagari.livejournal.com]

[Yeah, that works.]

"Yes." The mutter is just loud enough for his companion to hear, and Sai bends over quickly to snatch up his flashlight again. Whatever that had been, nothing was immediately attacking him outright. He just had to keep his guard up and--

"Your guard should have been up higher from the beginning. You've become lax in your training, and because of that you've allowed yourself to be used far too much since you arrived."

The voice was his own, and the ninja started, shining his flashlight in a sweeping circle around the room, only to hear... laughter? He'd never laughed that way before, and it sounded wrong to be coming from someone mimicking him. There was an excuse on his tongue. Most of that had been unavoidable. No one was able to fight off the brainwashing Landel was capable of. He stopped himself from uttering a single word in rebuttal, however. Root members didn't give excuses.

All he could think to say was "Naruto, be careful."