Mana feasted her eyes at the oversized base, seven hundred and fifty meters long and one third of that wide. Covered with smaller buildings, office complexes and metal domes. Eden looked much more like a military base than a prison complex. Further in the distance two main spherical shaped buildings with large rotund roofs stood out – likely the bulk of the imprisoned population was held there as well as the prison administration.
The massive steel gate closed behind duo’s backs making the magician feel strangely locked in for a moment but once her eyes gazed upon the massiveness of the prison complex in front of her she somehow felt much more free and epically overwhelmed inside the massive deforested containment base than she ever did in the endless forests of the Fire Country outside of it.
Hooded figures in capes and metal masks with red visors gazed at the two visitors from the top of the steel wall that separated the void of trees from the cradle of industry and civilization – almost a small village or a large settlement by itself. Mana breathed in and out looking around. She didn’t see that many uniformed or restrained prisoners walking around – mostly just ninja in typical ninja attires and body vests.
Usually ninja put their own spin on their attires, some wore additional clothing under the chuunin vest. Some acquired their own unique models of the same vest as it wasn’t that strictly regulated. People in the prison dressed exactly the same, strictly abiding the uniform rules which made Mana feel like a standout. Honestly even her companion who actually worked in the place stood out quite decently.
“Well… Are you going to gawk about or are we going to see him?” Yanagi wondered teasing Mana’s overwhelmed reaction to seeing the inside of Eden. Honestly, the place didn’t look like much of a prison. The magician voiced that impression right after being spoken to.
“Oh, it isn’t a prison by the strict definition, it’s more like a “detainment community”. The reason why this place looks like a militarized settlement is because it is – it has its own laws, administration and sort of its own military but those contained here aren’t technically threats to the village. Some of its most precious prisoners are actually not here to protect everyone from them but for the exact opposite reason.” Yanagi shrugged looking around with some pride and a warm smile, emoting was not something Aburame did often so seeing the man acknowledge the size and uniqueness of this place was just as priceless as the place itself.
“So I’ve heard… Two Jinchuuriki?” Mana mumbled to herself almost as if afraid she was going to be heard. Sugemi told her that much right before being taken away.
“Yeah… Look, getting to your friend is going to be a pain in the ass, plenty of check-ups and stuff like that. For the size of this place it has a very strict “go here if you want to go there” ruleset to it – if you want anything done this century we may want to move onto the check-ups right there, beside the staff accommodation area.” Yanagi pointed at a greenish metal tinted dome surrounded by simpler block buildings that supposedly housed the ninja watching and running the prison complex for the duration of their stay.
Mana nodded and the two passed on and through the door. Yanagi wasn’t kidding. The magician had to register all of her weapons and tools and it was becoming so bothersome that she simply opted to leave her jacket and all of the spring mechanisms of her uniform by the checkup rather than having to go through the confusing and tedious trouble to register her weapons. She also dumped all of her cards since registering each custom placed seal on each card would’ve taken an eternity, especially if each check-up would have to happen multiple times as multiple areas had increasing levels of security and something that would’ve been allowed to have in one area was forbidden at the other.
“I’m surprised to see how easy it is for you to disarm… Most ninja would greatly fear abandoning their weapons.” Yanagi noted after Mana rubbed her elbows and her shoulders as walking around in a sleeveless shirt alone was a bit too chilly for her.
“My mind is the most resourceful and powerful weapon I have. I’m not a kunoichi that relies on her weapons, they merely supplement my arsenal. You’d be surprised how often I do not expand my chakra augmentation force field wide enough to cover my clothes and they get singed. If that would get under my skin I’d probably have died long ago…” Mana noted. “What about your weapons? You just left your ninja kit at the check-up…”
“I am an Aburame, Mana. My weapons are swarming and squirming inside my body and I would die without them as they would without me. The ninja here understand that.” Yanagi looked at Mana with a bit of a shaming look which was only visible from the way his eyebrows were curved as his actual eyes were still covered by the strange darkened swimming googles.
A brief pause followed, Yanagi spoke first, clearly frustrated that something he wished to hear was not said.
“The concept of thousands of insects living inside of me does not creep you out? That is a common reaction…” he asked.
“It is kind of icky, I am not overly fond of insects but if that’s your thing – it’s your thing.” Mana shrugged with an honest smile directed at her companion.
“I am beginning to like you.” Yanagi smiled back.
“How so?” Mana asked.
“Over our course of common history you’ve not called me “bug-guy” once.” The man looked away pointing at the next building the two had to check-up in so that they gained access to the containment facilities and left the office part of the complex where all the tedious paperwork got done.
“Well, in everyone’s defense, you are a guy and you do use bugs. However I like to be original so I am glad to differ from the rest in at least some way.” Mana replied fondly as she filled yet another form.
Yanagi snickered in a rather contained manner as he quickly and lazily filled in his own form leaving endless blanks, the staff member overseeing the paperwork simply clacked their tongue and began correcting the man’s papers.
“Hey, Yanagi-san… It asks here “Have you come to Eden with malicious intent such as causing a prison break or doing criminal activity within its compounds”. Do you think I should check that? I mean – we are planning to leave with him, aren’t we?” Mana bit the other side of the pen, she could almost feel the sweaty forehead of the staff member sitting behind the hardened glass and sense his annoyance and confusion.
“This question was asked multiple times before. Why are you making a deal out of it now?” Yanagi slapped his forehead.
“Well, first it’s a really dumb question, second I want to fill the paperwork right. Paperwork is really important, you know…” Mana complained, “Still, who in their right mind would admit to having intent to do crime here or break people out?”
Yanagi snapped his fingers and stole the paper right out from Mana’s little extended platform where it was supposed to be filled up and quickly gave it to the paperwork person to check up and fix.
“It’s a trick, there’s an article for lying on a public form about criminal intent. They’re trying to get you into more trouble. That’s what got Aluminum Lee – the famous gang enforcer caught. The Ninja Tribunal stated there wasn’t enough evidence to lock him up for murdering people as all the witnesses were dead but he once lied on a public form like this one and that put the guy into Eden. From there on in a stronger case got built, a bunch of the supporters started believing Arumi wasn’t invincible anymore and testified for a bunch of other charges getting him transferred all the way to Jigoku for life.” Yanagi explained annoyed before opening the door leading into a massive containment facility and gesturing for Mana to go on.
“The devil is in the details, I suppose…” Mana wondered rubbing her chin and trying to wrap her head around the complicated Tribunal work and the difficult profession of actually prosecuting living criminals. In her perfect world there would have to be a perfect legal system. One that would make persecuting people more valuable than just cutting them down and being done with it.
Having seen a fair share of moving picture productions in her life, the magician expected that there’d be bit more noise inside a functional containment facility but no one was banging at the chakra force fields keeping them inside their cells. In fact, most people inside the containment facility were quite indifferent to Mana and Yanagi wandering about and minding their own business. That was so incredibly odd to the magician that her step slowed down somewhat expecting to get noticed and at least one horrible verbal remark being slung her way but nothing of the sort transpired.
The duo ignored any stairs and just continued to walk onwards to the further parts of the first floor until Yanagi suddenly stopped in front of a cell. With her chest burning up from excitement and her breath whimpering Mana walked up to the cell and looked through the dark purple glow of the chakra barrier keeping her friend inside.
“Hello, Sugemi…” she uttered having found no better way to start the conversation. “Is there any way that this barrier can go?” Mana asked Yanagi who simply placed his palm at the center and through great effort channeled a shockwave that sent ripples through the barrier breaking it down like a broken window. The falling shattered chakra constructs slowly dissipated in thin air beautifully in their synchronized destruction.
Slow taps emanated from inside the rather well decorated and very reminding of a simple living room cell. From the shadows Mana’s friend emerged – thinner yet also much more athletic and balanced looking, hair greatly lengthened. Most Nara had their hair very long but wore them in ponytails or tied and restrained in some way. Sugemi didn’t appear to care that much. Feeble and childish remnants of facial hair were beginning to dawn on the young man’s face.
“I seem to remember telling you that if I saw you again – it’d be as an enemy…” Sugemi recalled with his left foot standing suspiciously similarly to an offensive stance as if the young man was readying his body to pounce on his old teammate.
“That’s not true – you said we’d eventually clash. You didn’t say it’d happen when we next meet.” Mana’s cheekbones turned up as she shook her head gently.
“Oh… Well that’ll be an anticlimactic reunion of old friends turned rivals!” Sugemi shouted out in frustration snapping his fingers angrily. “Are you sure there’s no reason for us to fight for a while to establish tension between us and exemplify our very human flaws?” he asked.
Mana sighed, “We may go that way, however we are not legitimate rivals. I am the female romantic interest in the team formula which means I cannot be your equal rival in skill. That’d be Shimo. Also the protagonist’s rivals who fight weaker female romantic interests are really looked down on in the popularity polls, they generally are known to killing their entire series. I do not recommend going that way. It would also dispel any mystery for your exact power level after such a sudden reintroduction into the story.”
Sugemi stood for a moment in awe.
“I may have done some homework just to communicate on the same level…” Mana shrugged her shoulders with some playful and acted guilt in her eyes.
“You are right. My manga would dip in sales if I had the main character fight you.” Sugemi wondered scratching his chin.
“Wait, you’re the main character in your manga? You’re completely destroying the shounen genre tropes for the main character, also there’re entire arcs where you’re just imprisoned doing nothing. That’ll bury your manga, I heavily suggest being a rival character to Shimo.” Mana objected.
“Oh… Yeah, as if you’re a perfect example of a female romantic interest! Last time you subdued both of us instead of being weak and useless and you are not particularly romantically interested in either of us! You’re also far too soft to be a masculine female badass character written as if the author would write of a male because they think a female character that is manly and strong is the same as a strong female character! You’re completely breaking the genre yourself so we can go for the parody approach as our story isn’t really smart enough to be the trope breaker…” Sugemi replied crossing his arms on his chest and smugly looking at Mana.
“Yeah. But we’re not particularly funny so we can’t parody anything either… You need to reinvent your character. Leave on an adventure with me to save an actual damsel.” Mana suggested.
Sugemi looked interested playing with his hatchling soft facial hair stubs.
“Damsel in distress would boost my character alignment I could use scoring some popularity points…” he mumbled to himself.
“Actually… The damsel wishes to get married, you’d be kind of kidnapping her from her kidnapper and stopping her from getting married despite her absolute indifference to the matter. I don’t think she’s in any particular distress…” Mana fixed him making Sugemi pout even more.
“Wait a second!” the Nara suddenly realized. “If the damsel is not in distress she isn’t a useless weak shounen trope! Although, her rescue from a marriage she actually wants would give my story complexity: am I a hero saving a young lady from a bad choice she’ll regret in the future, or am I a monster kidnapping her from a loving groom!? My manga would get some complexity! Complexity, Mana!” Sugemi shouted out jumping in joy and clapping around. He even began packing his things. “As long as you’re aware of the fact that we will eventually have to fight, I want our previous dialogue to be foreshadowing for a really wicked volume spanning fight with transformations and very inspiring quotes that, given the context, are absolutely meaningless! That way my story will seem more intelligent than it actually is – making meaningless details into foreshadowing ones tends to do that.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll have an overblown fight over food that makes no sense since none of us really love food that much or a misunderstanding over vague statements or prophecies. Or one of us will get mind controlled at some point…” Mana playfully shrugged. “We are going to deal with Yamanaka so…”
“Here’s to hopping…” Sugemi firmly nodded his head. “But then it leaves only one question… What about my imprisonment?”
“Oh, do not worry about that, I’ll arrange a temporary leave with the administrator…” Yanagi butt into the conversation politely assuring the two past teammates.
“No. He means incorporating it into his manga… I’m sure you can make it a timeskip training arc. It’ll save paper and also allow you to make-up hogwash power ups and techniques without the need of actually establishing them or any character development that would come with learning them.” Mana suggested.
Sugemi sighed cocking his head around like he was not overly fond of that idea but then he decided to just go with it.
Quickly guards following a chubby short man filled the containment building and surrounded Mana, Yanagi and Sugemi.
“We’ve detected a barrier breach. What is the meaning of this?” the chubby officially dressed man inquired rudely but Yanagi approached him to bargain out a deal for Sugemi’s temporary leave on a first response squad. Mana and Sugemi stayed behind and watched over the conversation, judging from the manner in which Yanagi addressed the chubby man, the Aburame was outranked by the man and yet after a brief exchange of words and explanations the man hesitantly agreed to let Sugemi go on Yanagi’s watch temporarily just as reinforcement to the first response squad.
“That was impressive.” Mana complimented her companion on his impressive conversational and legal skills. Not many people could barter out a deal like that on the spot quoting actual prison statute and various rules and decrees.
“Scratch that, teach me how to communicate with that Nara guy. He was annoying to deal with sufficiently that the people he was placed with consistently tried to kill him and then pleaded distress.” Yanagi replied looking curiously at the athletic and tall young man following them with a large satchel of things he took from his cell. The trio headed to recollect all of the items they’ve left behind so they could move on to the Land of Waves.
“You know, we should’ve taken Deiji or Nanaba with us too… Don’t we still need people for a complete rescue team?” Sugemi inquired. “Maybe Shimo should’ve come with us too? Three people reunions make for pretty powerful moments that can be illustrated on the cover of a volume or even on the movie box if my manga ever gets adapted…” the Nara shrugged.
“No way, getting a Jinchuuriki to come would’ve been incomparably more difficult. They are almost always an exception to each leniency rule. They must stay safe and indoors at all times, that’s the policy Konoha has adopted since the Fourth Hokage declared it so…” Yanagi objected.
“Also… Shimo died, on the last mission we were in. I was pretty sure you were sent a notice with a permission of attending his funeral so I thought you’d know…” Mana sadly informed her teammate.
Sugemi looked down in confusion, his eyes wandered around the forest surrounding them and the Eden prison complex that was quickly fleeting their view and disappearing in the horizon.
“There goes your suggestion making him the hero… Did he at least die a sufficiently heroic death that the fans wouldn’t petition to bring him back and have closure?” Sugemi wondered. It appeared that after the initial cold shower of Tanshu’s death nothing made Sugemi abandon his manga-centered personality. It appeared to become his cover from pain, sadness and the cruel world around him – everything was just a manga story to him now. Mana was not entirely sure which version of her friend she liked more but at least she could somewhat communicate with this one.
“He did, but I suppose he could make a good surprise timeskip revelation to end the first post-timeskip chapter on… However you handle it, Shimo died a hero and his death mattered.” Mana concluded trying to hide her own sadness behind the adopted manner of speech she had to use to communicate to her friend. She had never in a thousand years thought that this manga trope world she was studying would become the only way to reach her friend now. It was really a good thing she had studied it extensively before approaching him.
“Yeah… It’d make a real shocker twist. Even if fans do make a fuss, in my manga no one will come back from the dead… Just my way of establishing some realism into this crazy world…” Sugemi mumbled out clearly affected by the news.
An awkward silence took over the better part of that day’s trip. The ever lingering presence of death and everyone remembering all those they have lost. It was clear just looking into Yanagi’s dark and expressionless face that somewhere inside those dark googles he understood the reason behind Sugemi’s current rambling state. It was the best way the boy had found to deal with the world around him. This change was his only way of not becoming the villain of his story. He likely still fostered those cold views of wishing to eradicate criminals and hating on Kirigakure whether they were criminals or not. Still, the way things were now it was tough to say how much of the old Sugemi or the darker Sugemi still lingered in this young man…
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