A New World

!

Colonel Mervin Morgan shifted in the metal and leather chair uncomfortably as he watched the other members of Project Diver file into the underground conference room. The lighting was too bright and Morgan felt like a rat in a lab cage every time he had to come down here. It didn't help in the least that this time he was on the spot for 'losing' one of the test subjects...again.

The business suited 'ministry' official, in charge of today's 'debrief', sat on the head of the black glass table and fixed Morgan with a cool gaze.

"Well Colonel, explain yesterday's exercise to us and I would be most appreciative if you could tell me where exactly Private Bradley has gone?" The suited man's tone was sneering and immediately put Morgan's back up. Mervin Morgan was thirty five, ten years ago he'd seen action in the Gulf, serving with the Royal Marines, before and after that there had been Northern Ireland, then service in the Balkans. He'd seen action, faced enemies doing their damnedest to kill him, yet suddenly he felt more scared than ever he had in the field, sweat trickled down his back.

"Ahh, we don't know exactly what happened sir. Private Bradley, like all yesterday's volunteers had no idea of what she had actually agreed to test of course, the chip implant seemed normal and like the others she showed no signs of rejection. While running the preliminary field stress tests in 'East Town' however Bradley vanished, we have gone over the sensor records and there was definitely a H-M energy spike at that point, so we can confirm that she went under, we cannot however say with any certainty, yet, how deep she transported. I'd guess, judging by the spike, she must have slip completely through the hole it made unlike, Falconer and as you know the rescue team confirmed he died from CDS meltdown upon impact. She's probably suffered the same fate."

"Also in the report from the test sight one of the transport trucks with the supplies for the base were driving through the test zone has also been transported also, Bradley was near the truck at the time putting in the transmitter for one of the test and must have gone with her. The trucks were being use for the testing of the new transmitter locaters for the new PDAs that were given out to the soldiers, so that in the field they'll be able to locate any friendly vehicles when they need support or supplies. This one had eight crates in it, four of the crates contain, medical, ammo for the standard L85A1 assault rifles and Beretta M92Fs. Flash and frag grenades, RPGs, and C4s for the demolition crews. The rest are unmarked," The Professor to Morgan's left spoke, his computer-synthesised voice sounding jarring in the enclosed space of the room.

"I almost hope she has Colonel, for her sake. Professor Mackenzie and I have gone over the sensor readings and attempted a 'plumb-line' sounding on her chip. We received a very faint echo from a small wormhole in the area where she disappeared. That young woman is certainly now dead or alive in some other dimension, I shudder to think what horrors of whatever kind of alien world she finds herself in, holds for her should she has survived the dive..."

!

In another world –

"What kind of weapon is that anyways?" the blond hair kid name Naruto ask Niamh. Sakura still looks like she's trying to hold her lunch inside of her when they had first seen the bodies of the bandits that tried to attack her. Which are now dumped into the forest after Niamh had taken the few things they were carrying on them.

Kakashi who sat down listening on in wanted to know too. The wounds on two of the men had the strangest wounds he ever seen before. From the front they had wounds that are no bigger then his finger while on the back, but from the back where whatever punched into them were something like a bomb would make. He also wanted to know where the strange woman came from. Her clothes are utterly bizarre. For all of his puzzlement, a part of the ninjas mind realized how perfectly the garment was dyed to keep her almost invisible in the trees. The grotesque rippling patterns of grays, greens and browns, blending with the foliage of woodlands.

"What never seen one before? I guess in this part of the world these haven't been shipped over here yet." Niamh said as she sat with her back on one of the walls of the rest stop building. She already figure out that the test she was in had somehow transported her to another would as the girl Sakura has pink hair that's unheard of back in her world. She knows that it's not dyed because of the pink eyebrows on her head. So she figure she would need to come up with a cover story as she dragged the bodies of her would be attackers in the forest. "It's a L85A1 assault rifle, think of it as an upgrade crossbow in terms you'll understand." Then she pulls out her handgun, "This is a Beretta M92F, it's like the rifle but smaller and less stopping power but easier to carry around."

"Who are you really?" Kakashi ask as he never seen anything like the weapon she's holding before, or even heard rumors about either. Well there were the volley guns in the 'Land of Snow' but they fired kunai instead of those little bullets as she calls them. Those guns are the most advance weapons he has ever seen before. (1)

"I'm a traveling mercenary from lands across the sea," Niamh said as she figures it's the best cover she'll be able to come up with for now, "The ship, I was on was blown off course by a storm, before it sank when it hit something under the water. I ended up being on a lifeboat drifting for about three days before I washed up on the shore near here."

"You come across the sea?" Sakura ask as she needed something to get her mind off of the bloody scene she saw earlier. Those were the first dead bodies she has ever seen outside of a funeral.

"What you mean? None of you ever seen someone from the lands across the sea before?" Niamh ask the party of five.

"I have," the old man Tazuna spoke up, "But I never seen someone like you before in the ports before."

"The world is a lot bigger place then you guys know," Niamh said, "I have been to places where the only thing you can see for days or weeks is sand and for months on ends sailing through the vast sea without and without a single sight of land." Thinking about how she was shipped off to the Gulf on a Navy ship instead of taking a transport plane.

"Seeing nothing but sand sounds like the Wind Country," Kakashi as he's been to the wastelands of the Hidden Sand Village before.

"Really this land has a desert?" Niamh ask.

"It does now anyways. Over the years, the Wind Country daimyos intentionally let a lot of their fields go fallow, to turn them into desert. It has maybe one oasis every hundred square miles, and will bleach your bones to ivory in seconds if the vultures don't get to them first. It keeps people dependent on the daimyos for survival; only they have the resources to do so as, growing crops in a desert is physical impossible. Ending up with any food crops have to be imported into the country. It's certainly cheaper than building prisons for dissenters," Kakashi explains to her.

"Sounds like a place, I should avoid," Niamh said as she made a mental note to keep away from the Wind Country, "Which way is the closest town or village around here?"

"We're heading to Nami no Kuni in the Land of Waves. We were hired to keep Tazuna here safe from any bandit attacks," Naruto spoke up, "How about you join us?"

"Maybe there, I can find a boat going out to sea," Niamh said as something about Naruto made he feel at ease for some reason.

"She'll just slow us down," Sasuke said as he leans back in the room. He flinches when Niamh pointed her rifle at him and before he could react pulls the trigger. The solid sound of a click echoed in the room.

"Next time it won't be empty," Niamh said coldly as she reinserts the clip in the gun, "The bullets travel faster then a blink of an eye. There's no way you would have been able to move fast enough for my shot to miss you at such of a close range."

"Wow you're so cool," Naruto said as he like how she handled Sasuke like that.

"I know how to handle hard asses like him," Niamh said giving Naruto a sly grin, "They talk big but they usually run away when they see that they're not as strong as they think they are."

"I highly doubt that," Sasuke replied trying to keep his cool.

"You're just saying that… for now," Niamh smirks at him.

"Hey Sasuke's brave!" Sakura defended him, but one glare from the older woman shut her up.

"It's too late for us to head out now," Kakashi said as he pulls out his little book and began reading with the remaining daylight outside, "Looks like we're spending the night here."

"What you know, I guess right," Niamh said as she gives the older ninja as flat stare, "You're a pervert."

"Hey she has you all figure it out," Naruto said as he grins at his teacher.

"And you really shouldn't read those kinds of stuff," Niamh inputted.

"What would I do then?" Kakashi ask, "We tell horror stories?"

"That's an idea," Niamh smiles wickedly, "And I can see how brave you ninjas are with my tale. It is called 'The Ring'.

!

The next morning –

The sun arose shining its light into the windows of the rest stop building on the road to the Wave Country. Inside the building are three kids huddling tightly to themselves as their eyes starring all around them. They have dark rings around their eyes as they hadn't been able to get much sleep, not with the scary story they heard last night. Their brave teacher who also acts calm and lazy all the time is in the same state as them, as he's been sleeping with one eye open all night long. It also didn't help that there's a deep well right outside the building either. The only ones that got any real sleep are Niamh who told them the tale about the girl in the well and Tazuna who's living in a nightmare already.

"It's like you guys have never heard a good horror story before," Niamh said as she takes out three ration packs of just add water soup mix for their breakfast, pouring them into her field cooking pot.

"Yeah but that story was scary," Sakura said, "And the voice you did it in didn't help either.

"You guys are supposes to be powerful ninjas not sacredly-cats," Tazuna said as he wasn't scared one bit by the story as he had much more to fear in real life.

"As if you didn't feel one bit of fear when she was telling us that story," Naruto answers back.

"I have more to fear then ghost," Tazuna replies.

"Where did you hear that story from anyways?" Sasuke ask the female soldier.

"From around my army base," Niamh replies as she stirs the soup mix.

"This army base of yours is it anything like a ninja school?" Sakura ask as she wanted to know more about the place the strange woman came from.

"Most of the soldiers in our army are mostly train in using firearms and being drill to follow orders," Niamh said.

"So none of you soldiers are train like us then," Kakashi said as he knows that once he's back in the village he well need to report this turn of events.

"Who said anything about not having soldiers that are like you guys," Niamh said as Naruto had shown her his Shadow Jutsu last night, so she quickly thought of something to make up. As she didn't want them to no that soldiers back home relies on their guns rather then fighting styles, making all but useless once they run out of ammo and face with people who know how to fight for real. Niamh couldn't help but be reminded of some of the animes she had watch after she had gotten hocked on watching them thanks to her brothers.

"Really?" Naruto ask as he wants to know more about his new friend.

"There's two soldiers that I know of who are like you ninjas. The first is a man simply known as Vamp. He has vampire-like attributes, including a taste for blood, the ability to run across or stand on the surface of water or vertical walls, superhuman speed and agility, and the ability to shrug off what would typically be a mortal wound even being shot in the head. Other than the haematophagy or need to drink blood, he doesn't seem to have any other traditional vampire weakness, however. Besides the vampiric abilities, he is also an expert with both combat knives and throwing knives. He even has this power of where he throws his knives at a persons shadow and actually pins the person in their tracks with them, unable to move till their shadow disappears when the light making it is gone. Originally from a land called Romania, Vamp lost his entire family during a church bombing when he was a child and was forced to survive while being pierced on a crucifix for two days by feeding on the blood of his family, acquiring him his taste for blood. After that something was unlock inside of him, something that wasn't human."

"He sounds scary," Sakura said as the idea of drinking blood unnerves her.

"Getting shot in the head you mean with a gun like yours?" Kakashi ask as from what he has seen getting shot by one of those guns isn't something that one can simply walk off. Seeing her nod in response he made sure to put that in his report.

"Then there's, The Fear who is known for his superhuman speed and agility, as well as his freakish, fearsome appearance. His entire body is double jointed, and he has a long, lizard-like tongue, forked through surgery, that he can use to grasp objects with like a real lizard. He is capable of dislocating his joints at will, he is able to crawl, flip, and leap extremely quickly in the manner of a jumping-spider, he can also climb and jump around in trees with ease, and also uses a variety of cable lines to enhance his mobility. He is also a master of setting up traps which using anything that's at hand to match the environment he finds himself in."

"The Fear uses two different kinds of crossbows in battle. The larger of the two is called the William Tell which has long range stopping power, and the smaller is called the Little Joe which he uses for close range as it's a rapid fire crossbow with fast reload time. Some of their bolts are coated with the venom of a number of poisonous animals. He also employs grenade arrows, as well as ones that burst into flames upon impact. Due to his speed and flexibility, he is also extremely formidable at unarmed combat. As anyone who tires to get a hold of him he can easily break free thanks to his ability dislocate his limbs at will, letting him attack at angles that are all but impossible to a normal person. To inspire fear in his enemies, The Fear uses stealth camouflage, which renders him virtually invisible by bending light around his body. Only a haze outline can be seen when he's invisible as he moves around."

"Bending light around him?" Sasuke ask wondering what she means by that.

"Yes by bending light around an object it becomes invisible to the naked eye, only someone who has a good sense of their surroundings or a good sense of smell can detect him," Naiamh explains to them as she serves out the soup she made. She still can't believe that she's using characters out of a videogame.

"Are there any other guys like them?" Naruto ask as he digs in the food she gave him.

"Yeah there are more people like them. The ones I know are in the High-Tech Special Forces Unit FOX-HOUND or FOXHOUND is a special forces specializing in solo covert infiltration missions. It was created in order to cope with local revolutions, regional complications, and global terrorist activities. This unit specializes in black ops, carrying out top-secret operations within 'unauthorized' combat zones which are too politically-sensitive to intervene in through conventional means. Each of FOXHOUND's members is a preternaturally skilled soldier, and the members of the unit have dabbled or even specialized in unusual subjects such as mysticism or psionics. Whether specialized or not, each of the members of FOXHOUND has a broad range of special force's and espionage training, and is capable of operating either on their own or together as a team, as appropriate."

"The most noted members who are still alive, is a man codenamed Psycho Mantis is a psychic expert for the FOXHOUND unit, who is also known as The Dream Robber. His special abilities include the psychic powers of psychokinesis and telepathy. Psycho Mantis was born in a small village. His mother died giving birth to him, which made his father resent and hate him. He discovered his father's true emotions one day while accidentally reading his mind. He wondered if his father would kill him, and the shock of this revelation awoke his subconscious, and inadvertently caused the deaths of everyone in the village approximately around 1,000 people. This release of psychic energy caused severe burns across his body, particularly his face. He was then taken into custody by the army, who found his psychic powers impressive. He was taught to control his abilities and became a spy. He wears a gas mask all the time, partially to hide his deformed facial features, but also to prevent the thoughts of others from entering his mind involuntarily."

"Psychic what's that, Niamh?" Sakura ask as she never heard that word before.

"Well you see we usually only use about ten percent of our brains. Psychics on the other hand have the ability to use more of their brains then others. Ranging from reading peoples minds, to controlling them, to foreseeing what's going to happen and moving things with their minds," she explains again before she continues on.

"There's, Decoy Octopus. He has an almost preternatural skill with disguises, as his name might imply, and is able to nearly perfectly take on the appearance and personality of his assigned target. He has cut off his own ears and shaved his cheekbones to help perfect his facial appearance, and if the target is dead, injects himself with the target's blood."

"Sniper Wolf is the sharpshooter of the FOXHOUND unit. She is the unit's sniper, a role in which she is exceptionally skilled. Snipers use guns like mine but have a far greater firing range then the rifle I have. Though snipers usually work in pairs, she works alone. She was a FOXHOUND and a famed sniper capable of going without food and staying still for up to a week. She has been known to form an emotional connection with her targets before killing them. She's the last student that The End has taken under his wing."

"The End is of the Cobra unit who is known as the 'Ancient Sniper' whom is the only living member now as all the others pasted or were killed in action. They were the FOXHOUND of their day before it was formed. He is known as the 'father of modern sniping,' as all modern sniping techniques are based on his teachings. No one knows how old he is now as even he has forgotten how old he is. He was already an old man when the Cobras were first formed. He has fought in countless wars over his long life, holding the world's record for the longest serving soldier and the oldest."

"Like several of the other members of the Cobra unit before they died, he has unusual, possibly supernatural abilities, in addition to his extraordinary sniping skill with his modified sniping rifle. He has the ability to communicate with animals, either verbally or empathetically, and he uses them, particularly a favored pet bird a parrot, as spotters. He is also an autotroph: the symbiotic photosynthetic moss interlaced with his skin and flesh can sustain him for long periods without food or water or even higher body functions. This mossy covering, supplemented with mundane clothing, also serves him as excellent camouflage."

"His codename, The End, comes from the fact that he is very near death from old age, one battle that no one can ever beat when they finally come to face it. Outside of battle, he is wheeled in a wheelchair instead of moving under his own power, and he spends much of his time in a state of catatonia very near to death. He is capable of sudden bursts of speed in battle, and is still a master sniper, but if left unattended he has a tendency to nod off, even in a fight. Sniper Wolf is the only one with the patients to learn from him as when he teaches he will sometimes just fall asleep in the middle of his lesson. Which is why she's so good at sniping as she has to waits for The End to wake up to finish his lessons before he falls asleep again."

"Wow that guys sounds like someone we know," Naruto said as he and the rest of his team looks at their teacher who is a lazy slacker.

"Hey I don't fell asleep," Kakashi defended himself.

"Well we do when we're waiting for you," his three students all said at once.

"So do you have a codename ask well?" Tazuna ask as he gets his things ready to go.

"No haven't gotten one yet," Niamh said as she uses people out of videogames to add some more depth to her story as she didn't want people to know she's from another world. "After, I'm done washing my pot we should start going. Sasuke why don't you get some water from the well outside?"

"Why should I," Sasuke said.

"Alright if you're too scare to I'll ask, Sakura to do it," Niamh grins.

"I'm not scared," Sasuke said as he walks out to get some water.

"Sakura that one lesson you should remember," Niamh said to the young girl once Sasuke was out the door, "When getting a guy to do something tell them that a girl could do the job better."

"I keep that in mind," Sakura giggles.

"Wow girls sure can be scary," Naruto said as he realizes how easily girls can get guys to do stuff for them, without really trying.

"Naruto," Kakashi said to his student as he places a hand on his shoulder, "I'm proud of you. I was twice your age before, I figure that out."

"And wait until you get married," Tazuna said, "Then things get much worse."

!

"How long will it be to get to the village?" Niamh ask as she walks down the road keeping close to Naruto as she has grown fond of him.

"In about two to three days," Tazuna answers as he continues on, "Unless we get attack again."

"There are some bandits around here?" Niamh ask as she didn't want to waste what little her ammo she has with her, dealing with bandits then saving her rounds for real trouble.

"Naw the two that attack us were ninjas," Naruto burst out.

"Why would ninjas…" Niamh began to ask but then turns her eyes sight towards Tazuna.

"Well the cats out of the bag now," Sakura said as she glares at her teammate.

"Nice going dope," Sasuke said.

"They attack me because, I'm a bridge builder," Tazuna starts to explains, "My village is Nami no Kuni it is an isolated island but used to be prosperous nonetheless, that's until a man name Gato set his eyes on it. He broke the people's will and monopolized the import/export industry, which is crucial for my village economy. Gato is a powerful ship magnate whose shipping company is actually a front for much shadier activity, such as smuggling illegal goods and dealing drugs. He took control of Nami no Kuni's shipping routes and created a monopoly by isolating the country from the outside world, preventing free import and export and turning it into an impoverished, hunger-stricken country in the process. I want to build a bridge to the mainland to help restore the economy of my land."

"This was supposed to be a C-rank mission but inside became a A-ranked mission," Kakashi said as he reads out of his book, he didn't need to explain as he had explained to her about how they rank missions last night.

"Even our own daimyo doesn't have the money needed for Chunins qualified to deal with A-rank missions for protection from assassination attempts, so I lied and said, I only wanted to be protected from bandits, making it a C-rank mission instead," Tazuna adds.

"That's a noble thing you're doing," Niamh said as she gives him a smile, "You know I am a traveling mercenary you know. You can hire me to protect you know and won't ask for much."

"Hey stop trying to take our job," Kakashi said as losing jobs to others was always an issue with any Hidden Village.

"But what can you do against ninjas?" Sasuke ask as he doesn't like this strange woman. Before he knew it Niamh turns around facing him and throws her rifle into the air causing everyone to look up as it flew high. Niamh pulls out her handgun and oversize bowie knife, rushes at Sasuke as he turns his sights back down onto her. He pulls out a kunai and blocks her incoming knife and was about to counterattack when he heard a familiar click as Niamh presses her handgun into his stomach. She gives him a quick smile before she sweeps his legs for under him making him fall onto his back. She drops her knife to the ground in time to catch her rifle before it hits the ground.

"The fighting style, I use on you is known as 'Close Quarters Combat', or CQC for short. It may not be ninjutsu but its does a good job of making a kill. It doesn't just relying on just unarmed moves but also making use of knives or guns in decisive combat with little time to think. I use a combine form with my handgun and knife," Niamh explains as she puts her gun and knife back into her hostler and sheathe. (2)

"Wow that was so cool!" Sakura shouts as she never seen anything like that before.

"Impressive," Kakashi said as he could see how she uses her long range weapon as well as her knife in an effected fighting style. As he could see that if she had wanted too she could have easily killed Sasuke anytime she had wanted too. And using her rifle to distract them by throwing it into the air told him that he needs to make sure to keep her as an ally, she would make a very deadly foe.

"Hey can you teach me how to do that?" Naruto ask as he wants to be able to kick Sasuke's butt like that too.

"Maybe later," Niamh smiles as Sasuke picks himself back up with nothing hurt but his pride. Suddenly something started beeping in her side-bag on her belt. She pulls out her new PDA and turns on the screen showing something three clicks from her current location.

"Hey what's that?" Naruto ask as he looks at the small glowing screen thing as well the rest of the party.

'Never seen anything like that before,' Sasuke thought to himself as he looks at the thing in Niamh's hand.

"Looks like something else survived the shipwreck," Niamh said as she remembers the transmitter she place on that cargo truck for the testing for the locaters built into her unit new PDA's before she was transported over here.

"Are we going to take a detour?" Tazuna ask as he doesn't want to waste time. He needs to get back and continue with building the bridge to the mainland.

"Don't worry, I'll go by myself and you guys go on ahead, I'll catch up with you guys later," Niamh said as she needs to get to the truck before someone else does. With the weapons and equipments in that truck falling into someone hands could spell trouble for this land if they fell into the wrong hands. As she's the only one with a gun here and she's going to keep it that way. If someone figures out how to mass produce the guns in the truck, there would be no stopping them.

"How are you going to find us?" Sakura ask as they would be far away once Niamh is done with what wash up on shore. And she didn't want to lose a strong woman like her as she wants to learn more about her.

"Here Naruto hold onto this," Niamh said as she gives him a hand radio with a transmitter built into it, "This is a radio it will let me find you guys anywhere in a twenty mile radius."

"That's something that comes in handy," Kakashi said as he eyes the screen thing as well as the small black box she gave to Naruto. If they have things like that in the Leaf it would come very handy for them.

"Just promises that you'll give it back to me and don't let anything happen to it," Niamh said to the young blond ninja.

"Don't worry, I'll keep it safe. Believe it," Naruto said as his new friend walk off the road heading towards the ocean. He puts the radio as she calls it into one of his pockets as he and the others continue on walking down the road toward the Country of Waves.

!

Author's Notes

1 – In Naruto the Movie, the country was shown to have a level of technology previously not seen in the Naruto universe, including railroads, airships, power generators, and volley guns which fired salvos of kunai instead of bullets.

2 – The fighting style that Snake use in Metal Gear 3.

!