Naruko shuddered visibly, and Shamal put a few more covers on her. "She's burning up…" she muttered, soaking a cloth in water and placing it over her head. Shamal was busier dealing with the magical after effects of Naruko's illness, and couldn't quite focus on her body with her magic.
It didn't make any sense. She shouldn't be trying to 'restore' power that should never have been there to begin with. It'd begun cannibalizing itself shortly after Naruko had fallen unconscious, and since then, Shamal had been too busy countering the effects of her Linker Core trying to explode from the strain and the less than favorable interaction that had with her chakra coils to really heal Naruko's body.
Even if she tried, the damage went beyond her abilities. She could recreate organs, yes, but that'd be a temporary solution. The organs she made were magical constructs, which Naruko's body had proven it could and would reject. And even then, given how quickly those had been taken for magical energy… it'd be a very little amount of time it bought them.
Unfortunately, Naruko's body was at an odd state of balance, right now.
She wouldn't die, since her Linker Core produced barely enough energy for her to survive the ever present drain from the Book of Darkness. Usually, it was strong enough to weather the effects without much problem. However, it seemed that the jarring experience had reconnected her ruined Chakra Coils with her Linker Core, which meant that Naruko's body was now more in tune with its own magic.
Her body didn't know how to heal both at once, and trying to do both meant that it as doing neither, as it was restoring itself just as fast as it was cannibalizing itself to produce magic. Shamal feared that the slightest tipping of this balance could be devastating to Naruko's health, no matter what she did. She couldn't heal Naruko's body well enough, and if she tried healing the Linker Core alone, it would begin trying to feed her chakra coils. Ruined as it was, the system did more harm than good in Naruko's body, and the strain from it trying to reform itself would almost assuredly be too much for Naruko's weakened body.
If Shamal knew how the Chakra Coils worked, she could try to sever them from the Linker Core, which would counter that… but she feared that, against, the slightest mistake could result in her mistress's death.
They'd have to rely on this legendary medic. This world's people knew how their bodies, with those strange 'Chakra' systems in them, worked better than Shamal did.
The most she could do for the moment was to make Naruko's stay in the hospital be as comfortable as possible, and to prevent the mundane symptoms of her illness from doing even more damage.
Zafira growled. "Something's off…" he said. "But I can't put my finger on what…"
"Things are starting to go downhill, too fast," Shamal noted. "It seems like we're slowly escalating the rate at which our problems increase," she added.
"We will have to work so much harder, then," Zafira said.
***
Four people squared off against five. They'd been separated from all the civilians who'd gathered to watch the earlier rampage of one of the legendary three ninja.
"This is one weird group…" Tsunade muttered.
Even Shizune would agree.
They were composed of, from the rightmost to the leftmost, a little girl in a white dress that carried around a very fancy spear, a boy in scary and menacing dark armor carrying a blue staff, a blonde wearing what had to be a bondage suit and carrying a miniature halberd and the only adult of the group, a grown woman wearing tiny shorts, a similarly tiny top strained by her sizable breasts, and most bizarre of all, wolf ears and a tail.
"Okay, so what's going on? I'm wanted in like a dozen countries, but you don't seem to be coming after me," Jiraiya asked. "Who are you people?"
"I am Enforcer Chrono Harlaown of the Time-Space Administration Bureau," the lead and only male of the other group said, floating in the air.
"More aliens?" Jiraiya asked. "Explains the weird fashion sense, anyway…"
"…You can't talk," the grown woman of the opposite group commented.
"Aliens?!" Tsunade yelled. "This is a giant mess. I'm not getting involved in it," she said. "I just agreed to heal a kid, not fixing Konoha's messes."
"We have no quarrel with you," the one named Chrono stated. "We are here to arrest the Wolkenritter and stop a tragedy from happening."
"You… you will not stand in our way," Signum said. "Laevateinn!" Pulling off her necklace, Signum made a slashing motion with her hand, and in a flash of light, she was covered in armor that had become infamous amongst Suna and Oto Shinobi, and wielding a weapon that was quickly reaching the rank of legend.
"Whoa, whoa. These two girls are valuable people and have done nothing that wasn't officially sanctioned by Konoha! They're not criminals!" Jiraiya stated, gesturing towards Signum and Vita, who both stood ready, weapons drawn. "Can't we just talk this over?"
"They won't listen. They don't care what your reasons are," Signum stated, simply.
"The TSAB is more interesting in upholding their laws than doing the right thing… all they'll do is kill Naruko off!" Vita yelled. "We've tangled with them before!"
"No, you don't understand!" one of the girls, the one with brown hair and the white dress, yelled. "We don't want to fight!"
"And yet you come armed! There's a Belkan saying, little girl, don't bring a spear to the Peace Talks!" Vita yelled, pointing Graf Eisen at said girl.
"That's the punchline to a joke," Signum corrected. "But correct nonetheless," she said. "I do not trust the peaceful intentions of an armed party who declared their intent to arrest us and captured us in a barrier."
"You're the notorious mass murderers," Chrono stated, eyes narrow. "I trust you understand caution is warranted."
"…Okay, so they've killed a couple of people. So what?" Jiraiya asked. "I've killed a fair few myself, I mean, there were wars and stuff, and a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do sometimes," he said. "So…"
"We're wasting valuable time!" Vita shouted, rushing forward. "You'll go down first!"
The little girl in white barely got a chance to react, but her device was alert and pulled her out of the way, calling "Flash Move" in Mid Childan as it did. However, that did not deter Vita, and growling, she continued in hot pursuit.
As soon as the Chrono boy jumped in to assist his teammate, Jiraiya intercepted, landing a solid blow to the boy's gut, causing him to double over. "Yeah, I'm not taking it easy and kidding around with you guys. Not if whatever organization you work for considers you strong enough to go off chasing against the knights."
Chrono huffed and took a few steps back.
"Now, seriously, if you're Law Enforcement, I don't want to make this into an interplanetary mess, so—"
"And yet you attacked me," Chrono cut him off.
"Well, to be fair, you were going to attack a member of my village… sort of," Jiraiya said, raising his hands, "but if we could solve this peacefully…"
"Nanoha!" the blonde of the other team yelled, rushing off, clearly having gotten fed up of waiting to see what happens.
Signum snapped into action, seeing as Jiraiya was distracted. "You won't allow me to interfere in the other fights… then I must defeat you, before the Wolkenritter kills Nanoha and Fate," Chrono stated, simply.
"They're not gonna kill those two," Jiraiya said. "They know their Master won't stand for it."
"Fate can handle herself… I've got a bad feeling about this guy," the adult woman said as she flew right next to Chrono.
"Arf! Are you sure?" Chrono asked, frowning slightly.
"I'm pretty sure. Those two have been training a lot recently, I have full trust in them."
"Well hello there, beautiful," Jiraiya said, grinning eagerly. "I'm sure you're a lot more, ahem, open to negotiation than Officer-kun here, right?"
"…Ugh. Maybe this was a bad idea," Arf said, growling. "I'm much more experienced than you in the Strike Arts, Chrono, support me from range."
"Affirmative," Chrono said, flying high into the air.
"Flying is SUCH a cheap trick!" Jiraiya growled, but he didn't have long to dwell on it as he was attacked with surprising speed by the wolf woman, who launched into a barrage of attacks. She was faster than him, he noted, and he could only keep up because he could read her movements well in advance.
She looked to be oddly twenty or so years old. What insane talent she must have, then, if the only thing Jiraiya could count on was a thirty year gulf in experience.
Still, he saw his opportunity and countered, dodging under her blows and leaving her overextended long enough to plant his own fist in her stomach, causing her to back up a bit. "You're very skilled," she said.
"Thanks, I work out a lot," Jiraiya bantered, grinning. "You sure you don't want to settle this with a little horizontal taijutsu?"
"…I don't even know what that is, and I don't want to know either," she replied. "I'll have to go all out."
"Well, if you're going to give me that courtesy, I guess I should do the same."
Arf blinked in obvious shock when Jiraiya blazed through a series of handsigns before biting his thumb and smacking it into his chest. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" he said before bursting into smoke.
She leaped back, clearly expecting some sort of technique… and he had used one, in fact. Apparently to transform himself into some sort of human-toad hybrid. He looked like the bad witches in children's tales. "What… is this?"
"It's called Sage Mode. It allows me to tap into the natural energy of the planet. Pretty neat, huh?" Jiraiya asked, grinning at her. "Also makes me a whole lot stronger."
"Jiraiya-chan, what's going on?"
Oh, and Jiraiya also had two toad-like things attached to his shoulders. That talked. He did make for a bizarre image.
"I'll tell you later, Ma, Pa, for now just lend me your strength!"
"Arf!" Chrono yelled.
The dog woman nodded. She used some sort of jutsu that made glowing rings appear around Jiraiya's ankles and wrists, surprising him for a moment.
"Stinger Blade, Execution Shift!" Chrono shouted.
Dozens of blade-like bolts of energy formed in the air, and Jiraiya's eyes widened.
"Gimme fuel gimme fire!" Jiraiya shouted.
"A spell!?" Arf yelled, as Chrono's attack launched once it was ready.
However, the toad like things on Jiraiya's shoulders spat a glob of oil and the other a fireball, lighting the oil on fire. Jiraiya himself seemed to spit some sort of wind wave, which made the huge oil-flame suddenly explode, increasing in intensity and heat as it did.
It blew a gigantic cloud of dust as it settled, and the shockwave broke the bindings on Jiraiya. It had also had the effect of stopping Chrono's attack and sending Arf flying away, the orange shield she'd erected at the last moment taking the brunt of the damage.
"A little help, hime?" Jiraiya asked.
"I told you, I'm not getting involved in this," Tsunade said, sitting down.
"Dammit!" Jiraiya said, as the other two once more seemed to come up with a plan, and prepared to assault Jiraiya once more. "This is what I get for being a nice guy, I guess!"