"I'll admit, I don't know why,
but looking at the stars
always makes me want to dream."
Vincent van Gogh
"See that star?!" Ari squeezes my hand lightly, pointing at the sky with her other. "It's in the Tokotati constellation. Even: that blue supergiant is Alpha Tokotati!"
Ariza's house is thirty minutes walk. We'd barely gone half, and I'd learned more about stars than my whole life. Felt like she studied astronomy, not kunoichi.
"Uh-huh," I nod, knowing I can't say more. At first I tried listening, understanding, but realized it's futile: complex terms, so I just admire her and nod.
Of course, she explained terms early, but I missed it.
"From this little one, spot an even more amazing star," she traces an imaginary horizontal line, hand not dropping:
"Like Kagutsuchi. This star's in imbalance now, but changes don't affect density. Absolute magnitude two, 115 times bigger than the sun! One of the galaxy's brightest, 500 light-years away!"
"Where'd you learn all this?" I ask, hiding inattention. Truth: focused on her, especially her icy hand. Why always so cold?
"Books, archives, ancient scrolls; asked astronomers too," she says thoughtfully, lowering hand.
"You know astronomers?" I say mildly surprised, hiding it.
"Yeah, met one recently on Snow Country mission. Remember? Hotel overnight. Sent clone to archives for cool info; found astronomer instead," she shrugs cheerfully. "But learned lots about stars."
"Got it," I sigh, looking skyward. "What's that star?" Brightest in sky. Didn't know Ari knew so much cosmos. She said she loves night skies, but not she's expert.
"Oh, fascinating one. Dug archives deep. Bright but unstudied. Called 'Mira,' in Eridanus. Mira-class variable. Apparent magnitude minus four, 17 light-years. Supermassive red giant; astronomer said appeared 20-30 years ago. Before, minimum cycle—invisible unaided despite proximity."
"How long will it shine?"
"Know some Mira-class. Some bright year, some centuries. Astronomer says this one's dimming soon—thousands, maybe million years till next."
"Got it. Brightest?"
"For us, yeah. Visible daytime unaided; cosmos-wide, quasars brightest," she says enthusiastically; now I'm curious what quasars are.
"What's that?" I ask, ready to listen.
"Quasars: huge black holes forming when..." cool wind blows, lifting her loose hair; I freeze. She keeps talking; no point listening. "...forming accretion disk..."
"Wonder if she likes hair touched?" I note mentally, releasing hand, pocketing mine.
"...brightest quasars trillions times brighter than galaxies..."
"What if I touch? Hit me?" I think.
"...nearest discovered 700 million light-years from Earth..."
"We've never seriously fought. Never yelled; no fights off-ground. Ari never tried hitting outside training," I relax; no head smack.
"...devour galaxies..."
"Win over loss; worth try," hand out pocket, waiting.
"...nothing escapes black hole past event horizon..."
Ariza looks skyward; time to act. Slowly raise hand, touch hair gently so she won't notice: "So soft... What am I doing?"
"But quasars eject powerful energy from matter nearing event horizon," she stops, turns slowly; I yank hand fast. "Um... Sasuke?" faint smile; eyes say busted.
"Uh, yeah, so quasar nearby blasts us to open space?" I blurt, recalling last bits. She stares silent. Then I get absurdity, blush.
"We flying closed space now?" she says softly. Eyes lock. Second silence, then laughter.
"Hah, okay okay, got it, sorry," I say unnaturally, lively smile. Where's my cool, family calm? Vanishes talking to her?
"Let's grab treat," she grabs hand, heads to nearby stall. "And yeah, knew from start you wouldn't listen; don't worry," she smiles; I blush.
"Uh... Ari... then why?"
"General knowledge," she smirks, to vendor. "Izao, evening! Usual!"
"Oh, Ariza-chan, hi," middle-aged plump guy notices, stops rummaging boxes. Sells street ice cream, closing probably. Would he refuse non-regular? Saito buys sweets here often.
"Um... Ari, no money," I admit.
"No prob, Sasuke," she smiles softly, reaches pocket. I move to stop; vendor beats:
"Ariza-chan, got solution," winks, adjusts mustache, digs boxes. Seconds later, double fruit ice cream. "Last one; same price as your fave. Regular? Free!"
"Thanks, Izao!" Ariza beams, takes; I get it: unsold, would melt.
"Thanks," I say.
"Perfect for couple—you two. Good night," winks gray man, grabs boxes, leaves.
"How'd he know?" rhetorical; old guy's guess. Ariza shrugs, bins wrapper, splits ice cream, hands half. "Thanks. Let's go? Your house close."
"Yeah."
POV Ariza
July 24, 1056
15:31
Getting Naruto and Jiraiya together was easy. Naruto sulked (or pretended), but walked with me.
Told him I wanted to introduce an old acquaintance. En route to hot springs, sent clone check if Jiraiya there.
Toad Hermit was decent; showed at meet spot from yesterday. Talked; learned Minato asked him train Naruto later. My help unnecessary: just sped inevitable.
Once Naruto "in Jiraiya's hands," I headed training ground, arrived hour early. No warmup urge; start with Jiro, gauge strength.
Two tasks: check subconscious, then scroll.
Sat lotus under tall tree shade, dove inner world.
Scene shifted instantly; before computer. Room unchanged: door front desk, empty bookshelf left door. Desk lamp brighter? Draftier feet. Cursed Seal aftermath probably.
No delay: boot laptop, "characteristics" folder. Days ago comp said two days for reaction data. Time up; wanna see results.
Stats:
Strength — 124 (+68)
Dexterity — 96 (+55)
Speed — 113 (+61)
Endurance — 173 (+40)
Reaction — 109 (+44/+68)
chakra Amount — 240 (+240)
Oh, interesting — either I'll get +44, or +68 if I start using Sannin chakra (Cursed Seal). Or does it mean that with partial seal coverage I'll get +44, and with full coverage +68? Eh, whatever, what the hell does it matter if I'm not going to use the seal anyway? What's the point of guessing over these numbers and units of measurement?
"Hey, last update and weird voice, you here?" I addressed the soft voice that had talked to me last time. Of course, calling it "talking" is a stretch, since I asked questions and got brushed off.
"Yes," a female voice responded to my call.
"So, what's your name?" I asked.
"Name absent."
"Mm, okay, can I come up with one for you?" I asked cautiously. I can't just not address her somehow.
"As you wish."
"Well, then wait, I'll think of something. By the way, what's with those two numbers in reaction? How do I interpret that?"
"Information access restricted."
"No way!" I snorted and exited my subconscious. "Better to study the Scroll than stare at... numbers."
I took the Scroll off my shoulder and unrolled it. To my surprise, it no longer showed poisons or some secret code, but just seals. Just. Drawn. Seals. Which, by the way, seemed eerily familiar!
"And what does this mean?" I blinked softly like a sheep at new gates. This Scroll never stops surprising me. Every time something new, like I'm playing some lottery. What if this Scroll is from some other world? It's helped me twice already; maybe it'll help a third time?
Anyway, screw it! I don't know what these seals are or what technique will come out of them. What if I accidentally kill myself? I still need to save Naruto, Sasuke, and the world. So this time, the phrase "He who doesn't risk doesn't drink sake" will stay on the sidelines.
"Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram. Hm. Familiar sequence; if only I could remember where I saw it," I posed the rhetorical question, squatted down, and ran my hand over the rough parchment, already about to roll up the Scroll.
"Ow!" Suddenly, something sharply stung my finger, and blood started flowing from it. No, not stung. Sliced. Like wind. A few drops fell on the parchment, staining the white sheet with blood. I jerked my hand back and stood up. What the hell?! I stared at the perfectly smooth parchment. Impossible to cut yourself on it! Nothing to cut on! "Hm... wait a minute," I squinted and tilted my head to the side, frantically cycling through those seals in my memory. I looked at my bleeding finger, then at the Scroll, back at the finger. And then it hit me. "This is... this... Cursed Seal!" I lunged at the bundle with all my might to wipe off that damn drop of blood. But I only managed to touch it.
The ground vanished from under my feet, and I began falling down with the Scroll in my hands.
***
Read the story months ahead of the public release — early chapters are available on my Patreon: Granulan