Chapter 27: Chapter Twenty Five: Extra Hand
Rise Uchiha:
The shell from the third tank burst forth like an angry sun, tearing through the battered armor. Everything went white-hot, the roar deafening. It was like being inside a star, burning and unyielding.
Heat and shrapnel showered over me. The explosion, it was a monster, furious and insatiable. It devoured the tank, transforming it into a brilliant fireball against the orange sky. The shockwave flung me out, spinning away from the tank.
I hit the ground hard, rolling, tumbling. My body screamed in protest, every nerve ending alight with pain.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. I lay there, sprawled on the unforgiving ground, the sky spinning wildly above me.
I'm so dumb. I should've known, should've seen it coming. The Inja No Mi soldiers were young but ruthless, of course they would be willing to sacrifice their own just to take us—me down.
I groaned at my own stupidity.
Suddenly, a sharp, searing pain cut through My thoughts. My hand reached up, fingers trembling, and there it was—a piece of shrapnel embedded in my shoulder.
I tried to sit up, biting back a cry as the pain flared, white-hot and blinding. The world around me was chaos, but in that moment, my entire universe shrank to the jagged metal in my flesh
I forced myself to breathe, each inhale a ragged struggle, each exhale a release of pain and fear. I knew I had to move, to get away from the open, from the vulnerability of lying exposed on the battlefield. But my body felt heavy, uncooperative, weighed down by the pain.
Then, I heard them – boots, so many boots.
I squeeze my eyes shut, bracing myself. But when I finally dare to look, they were all around me, the Inja No Mi soldiers. Their faces are all smudges of paint, and their kunais out, ready to do damage.
My heart boomed, pounding like it's trying to escape. And then, out of nowhere, arms appear on the soldiers' shoulders. Strong, lean, fast arms. Before I knew what was going on, this awful snapping sound cracked everything. And one by one, the soldiers just drop, like puppets with their strings cut.
I just laid there, trying to make sense of what I saw, when suddenly, boom, boom, boom – explosions everywhere. It was like the ground itself was falling apart. With every bit of strength I've had, I started to force myself up, I needed to see what's going on.
Cold. Something cold touched my neck. A blade.
"What's your hurry?" a voice asked, floating in from somewhere.
"What… ?" I started, but before I could finish, a disembodied hand swiftly crawled on top of me, and flicked the metal on my shoulder with considerable force, jolting me upright.
"Ow! Hey, what… don't do that, hand!" I snapped.
"Stay down, or I'll have to flick you again," the voice warned.
I laid back down, my mind racing. "Who are you?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
The voice chuckled, a sound that seemed to dance in the air. "Just your friendly neighborhood life-saver" it replied, amused. With what?
I immediately got a sudden, overwhelming urge to sock whoever this was right in the face.
"Now answer my questions, or…"
The hand flickered at the air, threatening me. What is this, the Adams family?
"Look, today's been a dumpster fire," I said, exasperated. "Can we skip the third-degree and—Ow!" I glared at the hand, which had flicked me again. "Cut it out!"
Mr. invisible, still floating around like it owned the place, replied, "You're not exactly in a position to be making demands. Now, how did you ended up here?"
I took a deep breath, trying to think of something – I needed to buy time.
"I was… running," I admitted, deciding on a half-truth. "From something I had no choice but to involve myself in."
"That's… incredibly vague".
I sighed.
"Well, I was running..."
Then hand waved a finger at me.
"No, you were captured, I saw you, I rescued you. This literally just happened, – did you hit you head or something?"
"Oh, fuck off", I said. The voice sighed, like it was dealing with a particularly difficult child. I took a deep breath, "Okay, here it goes. I… I rescued someone. Hizashi Hyuga, from an enemy camp."
The hand paused in mid-air, probably as surprised as a disembodied hand could be.
Did the name 'Hizashi Hyuga' meant something to him? Was he from Konoha?
"Yeah, that's right. Hizashi Hyuga," I continued. "He was held captive, and I couldn't just leave him there. So, I got him out. But things went south fast. We were spotted, and it turned into a mad dash for freedom."
"So you were running…", he echoed my previous statement.
"Yes, you got a problem with that?"
"No. Running can be good. Sometimes it's the only way to survive. But it can't be your only plan. You were running to… what?"
I sighed, feeling suddenly weary. "Honestly? I don't know. I didn't think I'd get this far."
"Well, you did. Looks like you've got a guardian angel. Or at least a guardian something. Anyway…", the hand, now floating like a weird balloon, gestured for me to keep talking.
So I did. "After the first escape, we were chased and blown of the river. And the rest you know. Look, Can you at least show yourself? It's super creepy talking to Casper the Holly Ghost and… a hand."
Just as I say that, my world literally flipped. The ground beneath me just vanished, like a trapdoor in those old-timey cartoons I used to watch. I plummeted through the air, my stomach doing somersaults, my heart lodged somewhere in my throat. This was it, the big goodbye, I thought. I was about to become a pancake.
But instead of a painful smackdown, I landed on something surprisingly soft. It was grass, lush and green, like a mattress made by Mother Nature herself. I lay there, gasping for air, trying to get my bearings.
That's when I saw it. Off to my left, something so fantastical it made me question if I hit my head a bit too hard. A unicorn. Yeah, a real-life unicorn, but not like those in storybooks. This one was majestic, its coat shimmering like polished marble, and its mane… oh, its mane was something else. It was like watching a dance of flames, a fiery cascade that somehow didn't singe a single blade of grass.
The unicorn seemed undisturbed, just grazing there, undisturbed by my sudden crash-landing. The fiery glow of its mane bathed the surrounding area in this warm, almost magical light.
"Hey, didn't you say you wanted to see me?", the voice asked and I turned to my right.
And there he was, standing effortlessly cool, yet somehow larger than life. Like he'd just walked off a page from a adventure novel. His hair, a disheveled mop of dirty blonde, looked like he'd been running his fingers through it all day. And those eyes, deep and piercing, like they could see right into my soul.
He carried this raw, rugged aura – not just in his appearance but something that seemed to radiate from him, tangible yet untamed. His attire was an intriguing mix of practicality and an unexpected sense of style – an open green flak jacket that seemed tailored for both defense and ease, dark blue clothes that clung to his muscular frame in a manner that was almost, well, distracting. And those boots, sturdy and scuffed, like he was ready for anything, from a covert mission to a whimsical trek in the woods.
For a split second, I was lost, just drinking in the sight of him. It wasn't until the cool metal of his sword gently lifted my chin that I realized how close it was to my neck.
"Happy now?" he asked, a hint of a smirk playing on his lips.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Evil_Monologue
Evil_Monologue Do you believe in love at first sight?
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