CRACK-BOOOOOOM.
The sky ruptured with thunder.
Lightning tore across the low ceiling of clouds like a blade dragged through wet paper, bleaching the horizon into a single, blinding plane. Sap-dust and ozone saturated the clearing, turning it electric—a sharp, metallic bite that stung my tongue. I squinted, the retinal burn interfering with my focus. Lightning crawled across the metal ribs of Aoi's umbrella, casting jagged shadows across his bandages as he stood framed by the mouth of the forest.
A promise lived in the lift of his arm. The Sword of the Thunder God cast a savage glow across his features, turning his expression into something carved out of light and madness. The hilt in his hand screamed, a high-frequency whine that set my teeth on edge.
"GET LOW!" Naruto barked beside me, raw and desperate. "DON'T—!"
Light flooded the world. The invisible blade passed through the far cables. I didn't hear the snap—not at first. A heartbeat of absolute, heavy silence preceded the moment the world tore open.
Not a break—an unspooling in a snapping chorus. Broken strands whipped the air, the recoil of snapping tension displacing the space around me. Shuddering beneath my feet, the bridge pitched forty degrees. The entire structure kicked like a horse.
A sickening vertical pull—pressure collapsed vertically. My stomach surged into my throat. My senses kept missing the first beat as the visual drop left my inner ear screaming, the world falling out of phase.
"MOVE!" Kakashi barked.
I lunged, fingers clawing for the rough fiber of the railing, but the rope bit into my palm and slid through my grip before I could lock my weight. I grabbed Idate by the front of his tunic and dragged him down, twisting mid-fall so my back took the load.
My frame met wood with a flat, dry report. The landing detonated through me, a resonance that blurred the horizon into a visual smear. My glasses skidded crookedly, the frames digging into my cheek while the left lens fogged with moisture and grey particulate.
"Sylvie!" Idate's voice broke through the noise a second late, shredded by the wind.
Kakashi dropped, his hand a heavy, grounding weight on my shoulder. Above us, Anko vaulted the mess. Sweat and rain mixed on her skin, her chainmail shifting with a heavy, metallic rattle.
Snakes erupted from her sleeve. The thunk-thunk-thunk of fangs embedding into stone broke through the roar. Tendons in her thighs strained to the limit as she locked around the remaining cables; the tension cut into her skin as she forced herself to become a living anchor.
Naruto didn't wait. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
POOF—POOF!
The space around Naruto rippled—two clones snapped into being on the tilting span. The first clone's foot skidded on the wet wood, its body twisting to find balance.
Naruto jumped. Not across. Up.
The first clone grabbed Naruto's arm mid-air, a jarring wrench that pulled his shoulder to the limit. The second caught his leg, a frantic, spinning motion that sent Naruto into a forced arc toward the far bank. Naruto's body whipped forward, his mesh tank top sticking then peeling from his ribs as the wind hit.
Below, the chasm yawned, a hungry shadow. His second clone dropped, falling past the ruins. Even as it plummeted toward the surf, the idiot gave a jagged, frantic salute toward me.
"Later!"
The clone blinked out of existence mid-fall.
The third clone hit the far side of the span. It drove its weight into the wood, bending the planks downward before the bridge snapped upward in a violent recoil.
Kakashi shoved me. "Jump."
I grabbed Idate and we leapt.
The far bank met my boots with a jolt that climbed my spine in one brutal line. My lead foot hit the dirt; mud sealed around the sole with an immediate suction that nearly pitched me forward. I skidded through the wet grit, mud spraying my shins, and spun around just as the rest of the team cleared the gap.
The third clone remained. It stood too straight, raising its hand in an over-the-top salute as the last iron cables gave way. The bridge screamed—a sound of stressed iron that registered from behind the present after the wood began to fall.
The clone fell with it. Still saluting.
POOF.
Silence held after the chaos.
My hands pressed into the wet dirt, tendons hitching against the cold grit. A high-pitched ring made the forest sound like it was underwater. I blinked, but the trees stacked incorrectly in my vision, desynced from the moment. My glasses remained shoved against my cheek, the lenses coated in condensation.
Sap-dust and pulverized wood turned breathing abrasive. It hit the back of my throat, forcing a harsh, racking cough. Pulse hammered in my throat, out of sync with my breath.
Beside me, Idate was a blur. Fine motor control stuttered in my fingers; they wouldn't stop the micro-spasm.
Naruto straightened up. He took a heavy step, his jaw working for several seconds before sound followed. When he spoke, his words punched through the rain, too loud.
"Ha! Did you see that—" Naruto forced out a jagged breath, his grin arriving from behind the present, too slow to be convincing.
I stared at him. I couldn't move. My hair stuck to my face in salt-crusted clumps. "I am just... noticing," I said, my words coming uneven. "Your clones. They... they don't stop."
Naruto laughed, but his hands were shaking as he wiped mud from his orange shorts. "Of course not! I'm brave!"
I shook my head, the motion making the trees jitter. "No, Naruto. It's the pattern. They don't just lack fear. They have no sense of self-preservation at all. They Poof—and they're just gone."
Naruto blinked, his eyes tracking my face with a strange, forced intensity. "Well yeah. They aren't real."
I tilted my head, trying to ignore the way the horizon refused to level. My mind was trying to slot the data, but the conclusions were slippery. "But you get it back? The experience? The feedback?"
Naruto opened his mouth, then closed it. The light from a distant lightning strike reflected off the slurry between us. "…yeah?"
"Then every time they leap... every time they experience the fall... you feel that." My brain lagged behind the implication. "You just felt yourself die. Three times. The impact. The erasure."
Naruto stomped his foot into the mud, splattering his leg. He whirled around, his voice cracking. "Stop making me think so much! It's magic! I don't gotta explain the gut-check!"
"If you feel their deaths, Naruto... what does that do to you?"
"Nothing! Poof! It's just a Poof! Leave it alone!" He barked, his chest expansion hitching.
"Maa," Kakashi said, his voice arriving from behind the moment. He brushed soot from his flak jacket as if the catastrophic collapse hadn't happened. "Naruto, watch your language."
Naruto whirled on him, his anger masking the instability in his hands. "THEY ARE THE ONES WHO TALK LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME!!!" He jabbed a finger between me and Anko.
Anko, still catching her breath, her snakes having receded, let out a sharp, dry laugh. Kakashi just shrugged.
Naruto made a strangled noise, dragging his hands through his spikes. He turned away, his shoulders rising and falling in an uneven cadence. The rain picked up, the temperature turning needle-sharp. Somewhere beyond the trees, Aoi was waiting.
I didn't look at the path. My focus locked onto Naruto.
He had experienced the terminal drop, the salute into the void, and the erasure of his own existence.
What does it do to him? I wondered, my thoughts still fragments of a model I couldn't finish. Maybe they represent... ghosts. A triad built out of things that aren't there.
I forced my weight forward, my knees still refusing to fully lock.
"Let's go," I said.