Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Eye of Eternity ❯ Part 2: ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

[B:]

It was then she remembered her teleporting ability and was about to use it when a certain memory came to the fore. It showed her scenes from the viewpoint of Uchiha Madara who was moving by teleporting from one place to another continuously. The thing that caught her attention was the fact that Madara did not teleport directly to his destination in one big jump but did it in a series of small hops or blinks all over the place.

'Movement through the Transmigration of the Soul,' a familiar voice seemed to say.

Instinctively, Taylor looked around in the direction of the speaker even though she knew she was not going to see him.

Why didn't Madara just teleport directly to his destination?

'Chakra consumption,' came the answer from the same mysterious voice.

Another memory came to the fore.

Long distance teleports consumed a lot of chakra in one use, making it dangerous for the user due to the increased likelihood of chakra exhaustion and the low-level of chakra available to the user after that use. Consequently needing time to recover all that chakra. Precious time, which was not always available due to the situation. Not to mention, chakra exhaustion could also kill the user if the user was not careful. Soldier pills could, of course, be used to regain chakra in a hurry, but it had undesirable side-effects and were also not available at this time.

She wanted to try another 'short-ranged Transmigration of the Soul' but the voice cautioned her on the demonstration of her abilities in such a public place even at this time of the night. The Way of the Shinobi or Ninja was all about silence and efficiency in carrying out the mission. No unnecessary public displays of skills or abilities unless it was essential for completion of the mission. To be a Ninja, Taylor would have to change her very way of life and thinking, that she may be a hero albeit one that strikes at evil from the shadows.

Deep in her heart, Taylor already knew what sort of costume she was going to use. Namely that of a faceless Ninja. She was already mentally going through the equipment and weapons that Ninja carried to carry out the mission. Shinobi like Madara favoured kunai or senbon due to the ease in which they could conceal those weapons on their bodies though big weapons like Zabuza's Kubikiri Bocho or Kisame's Samehada were also used.

Long-ranged weapons such as shuriken and shaken were also utilised when it was ideal to hit the enemy from afar. Although Taylor's aspirations as a hero limited ... no ... modified her arsenal somewhat due to the fact that she could not kill her targets.

Ninja also carried a variety of tools with them for completion of the mission such as flash powder, lockpicks, exploding tags ... exploding tags? Since there was no source of exploding tags in Brockton Bay at the moment, she would have to create them herself using Fuuinjutsu, meaning more study ... and training in hand to hand combat methods both armed and unarmed.

But all that thinking brought up another big headache to our poor hero. Where was she going to get all the time she needed to train herself in her knowledge of Fuuinjutsu, both armed and unarmed combat as well as all the jutsus and abilities that she was going to inherit from this Uchiha Madara? All the time in addition to having to go to school for education as meaningless as it was since the dreaded Trio tended to ruin her lessons at school?

'Do what is necessary first and the unnecessary last. If both things are needed, a sacrifice would have to be made. Those are the choices that Shinobi don't like to do but would have to make in the course of the mission,' the unseen speaker advised.

Seeing that becoming a Ninja was going to be a full-time job, Taylor finally decided to drop school and began her training as soon as she could. She was certain that she could get her father to agree to her request to drop high school once she told him of the bullying incidents that had been going on for more than a year in her life and her suggestion that she got homeschooling instead to make up for it.

This would, of course, allow her to have more time to prepare her Ninja gear as quickly as possible. Ninja constumes were not expensive or difficult to prepare. Taylor was reasonably sure she could weave one up in a month ... which would of course cut down the amount of time she had available for training ... when she remembered something ... the clone jutsu ... the Kage Bushin No Jutsu ... Madara's archenemy, Naruto Uzumaki was very fond of using it or variations of it. She would have to look into this jutsu and master it as soon as possible.

Taylor was esctatic about the whole thing despite the challenges ahead. The possibilities were endless with a whole new world of options in front of her. In the meantime, she would have to use eggshell bombs as a substitute for exploding tags. Though this would allow her the opportunity of mixing the powders or chemicals that she wanted into the eggs.

Oh joy ... Taylor thought as her footsteps carried her closer to home.

<>

It was late at night or was it early morning? ... when Taylor reached the doorsteps of her house. It was dark in the house meaning that her father had gone to bed. She briefly activated her special sight to confirm her suspicion. True enough, her father was asleep in bed. Putting the key into the lock, she turned it and the door latch lifted.

Giving the door a push, she stepped into the house reaching for the light switch automatically before stopping herself after realizing two things. One, her father was already asleep and she didn't want to wake him up. Two, she was still able to see everything clearly in the darkness of the house without any trouble at all despite the absence of light.

She took off her shoes and closed the door as quietly as she could, stopping briefly to check using her special sight if her father had woken up from the noise of the door being closed. He remained fast asleep. Good. She tiptoed to her room with her bag making her way slowly past the sofa and the television set in the living room before heading for her bedroom down the hall.

After placing her bag on the ground, she decided to grab a towel and take a bath for she smelt rather bad after being locked in the locker with all that disgusting stuff. Though she could only wonder in amazement as to the effort and the amount of trouble the Trio was prepared to go through to make her life a living hell. She also briefly wondered how they managed to put up with the smell themselves in order to get it all in the locker.

She quietly headed to the bathroom with a set of clean clothes and closed the door. After getting into the cubicle, she turned on the shower, feeling the fresh clean water wash away the dirt and soothe her tired body. She also took the soap into her hand and scrubbed her body with it.

"Taylor, is that you?" a concerned voice called out from outside the bathroom door.

"Yes Dad," she answered meekly ... somewhat.

"I thought you were having a sleepover at Emma's house for the weekend. She called me from school today to let me know," her father exclaimed in surprise.

"Did she tell you that? Dad ... Emma lied to you," Taylor pointed out.

"Lied to me? Why would she do that? She's your friend," her father continued, his voice a mixture of puzzlement and confusion.

"Dad, Emma is not my friend. In fact, she has not been my friend for a very long time. I will tell you more after I finished my bath," she answered with a sigh.

"Okay ... I'll be waiting for you in the living room," he said.

After finishing her shower, she changed into her clean clothes while looking into the mirror, drawing her breath involuntarily as she did so. She gasped again at the look in the mirror. Her face looked the same but her eyes ... her eyes ... they were different. The normal whiteness of her sclera and her green pupils were missing.

In their place, was a ... she quickly turned on the lights in her bathroom to see a pitch-black darkness in her eyes broken only by the movement of dancing purple spirals that seemed to elongate and change in size ... before shifting into spinning white spheres that danced across the dark void of her eyes ... and then changing into red crystal-like multi-pointed stars that appeared to be turning and tumbling through the total darkness of her eyes before shifting back into those purple spirals again.

"Oh ... My ... God ..." she managed to breathe out.

'Dad is so going to freak out,' were the first thoughts tearing through her mind.

<>

Taylor kept staring at the mirror for a time ... who knows how long a time ... before heading for the door wondering what she was going to tell her father. Opening the bathroom door, she stepped out into the corridor and headed for the living room where her father was waiting for her. She took a seat at the kitchen table opposite her father, surreptiously keeping her gaze averted so that he could not see her eyes.

Once she knew that he was listening, she began her story starting with the bullying incidents at school and the lack of action from the school staff to do anything about it until the time she was shoved and imprisoned in her locker with all the dirty tampoons. It was not easy for her to do so talking about the traumatic incidents in her life but Taylor presevered despite the bad memories. Her father had, of course, flown into a rage upon hearing it and vowed to take action against the school bullies and the school administration about it.

It had taken some effort to calm her father down but she finally succeeded in doing so as she subtly reminded her father that Emma's father was also a lawyer who could make things very difficult for them due to lack of proof and the availability of reliable witnesses in coming forward to help with the bullying incidents.

From there, she had also spoken about her attempts into getting transferred to a new school like Arcadia High but it was nigh-impossible to get in there due to a long wait list for students. After much thinking about her life and the lack of progress in her education, she had finally told her father about the suggestion to homeschool her instead of going back to Winslow High.

Having a lack of better options to turn to, her father had agreed to her suggestion and told her that he would helped to look around for a tutor for her. Taylor cheered silently in her heart at her father's agreement though his next question disturbed her somewhat even though she had expected it.

"Taylor, why are your eyes closed?"

"Well ... I triggered ... in the locker," she said somewhat hesitantly.

"Triggered? You ... a cape now?" he asked in disbelief.

By way of reply, she disappeared from where she was sitting to appear on the sofa in the living room. Then she faded away from the sofa and reappeared on the chair she had vacated moments ago.

"That was how I got out from the locker. I've got Mover abilities Dad," she answered.

Her father could only gape in astonishment at what he had just seen.

"But my eyes have changed. I was afraid it might startle you if you saw them."

"Changed? Startle me? How?" her father managed to croak out.

Taylor silently opened her eyes. For a few moments, her father could only look on in total silence at the person his daughter had become. And then ... he collapsed back into his chair.

"Dad?!!" Taylor cried out, concern and fear filling her voice.

Somewhere in the vastness of deep space ... two large entities made out of golden coloured stars hovered ...

Agreement.