The Phenomenon Returns

It was an early morning in the Land of Fire, as Konoha woke up to the sun with minimal cloud cover. It had been forty years since peace had reached the ninja world and the Legacy of Edrick dominated Hokage Mountain. Dominic Edrick, Lacey Edrick, and a new, fresh face. That of Dominic Edrick III. The young male was racing through his paperwork. Just like his grandfather, he found it irritating. He wasn't too excited about politics but it was the job. The young man had invited his mother to help him file through it so that they may get brunch together. Little did he know, the return of an old friend to the village would present itself. This friend was neither human nor animal. In fact, it wasn't even substance. A Forever Zero was soon to be cast upon the young man, and that of the past would become present once more.

A proud mother she was as Lacey, now in her 50's walked her way down the main street of Konohagakure. She was heading to the Hokage Mansion to meet her son. He was new to his role and her helping him sort the files was the highlight of her day. The once young and vibrant Edrick was now older and wise, though her face had preserved her youth. She remembered her days in the ways of alchemy, something she never let go of even after the war. Although her access to The World of Alchemy was long gone, there were many days she wished that wasn't so. As she made her way into the door of the tower, she began making her way up. She had been smiling the whole time, however, as she reached the main hall, something in her gut pulled her. Looking down the hall, it seemed as if there was a presence among them.

'....the dark winds? Oh no...'

Her heart skipped a beat and seemed to sink. What was this feeling? The dark winds hadn't spoke to her since she was a teenager. Panicked, she needed to check on her son. She began racing towards the door. The feeling was so deep that she couldn't scream to call his name. She just ran. When she reached the door, using all her might, she put her shoulder through it. The door shattering she looked immediately to her desk. In shock, her eyes widened, as she witnessed....

As Dominic kept on about his work, he knew nothing of this presence. He was so caught up in his job, that he couldn't even sense things around him. A portal from the past had opened behind him. The gates had returned after a forty year absence. This time, Dominic III was the target. Yet he knew it not.

Out of nowhere the door shattered and Dominic looked up, jumping from his seat and grabbing his sword, but not pulling it from its sheath. He was so shaken by this, that he still didn't notice the portal. It even began to draw him in. Suddenly the feeling of its vacuum caught his attention. It was at this point he saw the figure in the doorway. His mother. However by the time he noticed her, his head turned. The gate of forever zero had expanded and strengthened itself. Dominic was lifted off his feet and the portal pulled him in. He tried to reach out for Lacey, but as he did, the gate closed itself and Dominic was no longer in his office...

Lacey's fears were confirmed as she looked in fright towards her son. He was being consumed by the same gates she and her comrades used during the Vizard War Era. She used all her speed to reach out to him and with only inches to go, the black hole closed itself upon he'd son, disappearing without a trace. Lacey fell to her knees as she had missed rescuing him. It was now that her scream for him echoed throughout the Hokage Tower.

"DOMINIC!!!!!!!!!!"

Breathing heavily, Lacey was in total disbelief. She punched the floor, putting a few cracks in it, beating it in frustration. How? Why now? As she contemplated these thoughts, one thing was for certain. The Phenomenon had Returned.

Nahatsu heard the rumble above from below in his office. Mom was pissed at something, usually something green haired. He gave a sigh as he stood from his desk and began walking upstairs. He pulled a toothpick out of his pocket and popped it in his mouth. Weird cravings.

Lacey would be in shock, she sat on the floor of the Hokage Office looking down upon her damage to the floor. She was breathing rather heavily as she pressed her hands to the floor. She couldn't raise herself up. She was overwhelmed for the first time since childhood. She could do nothing more than wait...

Hatsu rounded the corner to see his mom staring at a large crack in his floor. His heart flattened for a second at the sight of his beautiful floor. He slowly walked in looking around the place.

"I could've swore Dominic was in here just now.......are you ok? Was he base jumping again?"

Hatsu was sure this wasn't the case, but a slim chance of maybe kept him holding onto that lie.

Lacey would look to Nahatsu, her eyes saddened. She had just witnessed the one thing she had never hoped to see. Her son falling victim to the gates she knew to be sealed. She would slowly stand before Hatsu as he peaked in the room. With a heavy breath to settle her nerves, she spoke.

"Nahatsu, come here, we need to talk....."

She couldn't look at him. She was in too much disbelief. She could only hope he would want to listen..

He just gave a sigh and stepped from the doorway, settling down on the low hung shelf in a resting position. He crossed his arms and pulled the toothpick to the corner of his mouth. If dom did something stupid, Hatsu was going to whup some green haired little ass.

"I don't need the details mom, just tell me. Did he do something stupid, did he hurt you, and where did he go?"

He was very calm as he spoke, as if he'd done this before. He just wanted to find the kid and deliver some punishment.

The door slowly opened as he looked at the scene around himself scanning first Lacey then her son a packet of paper in his hand.

"What is this emptiness i sense/ The young hokage is gone/ I cannot feel his bio-signature in the village." He said hand placed on the small flat object on his belt as he bowed on one knee to Lacey. "The reports from my last mission can wait/I must stand ready/Pain is coming soon i can tell."

"No, it happened Hatsu. The gates of the past. They were sealed by my father....but one swallowed your brother.."

As she said this, Lacey was met by a new ninja, one who had been her assassination squad's top shinobi. He had his own reports, but Lacey knew that they would have to wait until she could make more sense of things. She nodded her head for Zer0 to rise and looked to the both of them.

"Listen, the Hokage is missing. The portals that my father shut have been re opened. Things are going to change as you both know it. Dominic may or may not be hurt. We have to get to the laboratory. Any questions before we go?"

Hatsu closed his eyes and leaned his head back. His thumb and forefinger from his left hand would wrap around his tempels and begin massagging his migrane. The portals from the past were something he was told about from almost everyone as a kid, and by becoming an adult it was easy to suspect that they were never coming back.

"I thought those were supposed to be sealed forever. So now you're telling me that Dom has gotten thrown into a different dimension, and since we have no idea how to control these portals, we can't really go find him? That's great....just what my week needed."

He turned his head to Zero and gave a small nod back.

"Sup Terminator, It looks like you just got invited to the family shit. We'll need a way to keep this all silent. Our enemies find out, then our goose is cooked."

"Silence is a virtue/one i excel in/i will find a way"

Zer0 pressed a button on the side of his mask making a red zero appear over his faceplate as he walked around the room tracing his gloved hands over the desk. He scans the chair before holding his hand over something invisible to their eyes till he uses ultra violet light to make small particles glow showing his find.

"Energy reading similar to my Digistructer/taking from this world to another/i shall research and come up with a way to get him back."

He uses a prn while he speaks to show diagrams and plans of the energy letting them know its able to be controlled with enough work. Making a graph of the energy and some materials he shows them to Lacey what he will need for his experiments.

Lacey would nod to them both, as she began walking out the door and heading to the streets. She would stop at the doorway, and speak.

"Not to worry. I'm going to dig into my alchemy. I can get you both there if Zer0 can harness the source quick enough, I can use a transmutation circle...˝

Lacey's voice would trail off, as she began walking again and also sounding more like a scientist than in a conversation. Time was key here, Zer0 needed to get his part right for any of this to work.

Hatsu stepped from the room and followed his Mother to the laboratory, all the while on the way playing with the idea in his head. Alchemy. It was a dangerous art, for it required the rule of equal exchange. For something to Alchemize, its required that something equivalent to what you want is sacrificed. What would Lacey have to give up to get them there? It bothered him.

"That can't be the only option. What if the drawback from the alchemy is too much? We can't loose 2 members of the Kage family at the same time. There's no way we can keep that under masks. we'll be finished within a week."

He still followed but the concern was shining in his eyes. She was all he knew as a mother, and he wasn't ready to see her fall victim to something just so he can preserve his little brother. Dominic was very important to him too, but he didn't want people getting hurt for no reason.

Zer0 watched them leave colecting samples of the energy before walking out of the hokage manor heading for his home and his laboratory carrying the viles carefully he played with the thoughts in his head.

"Slag/these events will cost me my time/but the kage must be saved... my friend must be saved."

His voice changed from the deep and computerized voice to a lighter but darker and more human tone as he set to work to crack these mysteries.

Lacey, though her son was talking to her, was still talking to a generic audience. One would think she was splitting an atom within her thoughts, but she was weighing the very options her son spoke of.

"....Yes, equivalent exchange...if we could limit the control...the exchange would be minimal...hopefully the cost could be the exchange of a dormant portal...unless...."

She continued, rubbing her temple with her index finger as she looked up to the sky as she walked. They were approaching the lab, the green hair of the Edrick woman flowing softly in the breeze, as her heels would clank as she walked.

A bright light flashed as lacey's group approached the lab, blinding all within a 10 foot radius of the light and a 15 year old boy was crouching down on the ground in front of the lab's entrance, the dagger at his side, moving slightly as he stands to take notice of his surroundings.

"Hmm, so some of them are still open, that cannot be a good sign." Naruhi looks at the lab, taking in everything about it, its porportions and surroundings just in case he needs it later on.

shielding his eyes, Nahatsu stopped, almost running into the little maniacal runt.

"As far as we know, only one has opened so far. we don't know why. This could be happening in dimensions all over the length of existence. For all we know something could be appearing here to attack konoha any minute. We have no course of action but to get the Kage back. Other than that, it's an open book."

A bright light brought forth its presence to the two shinobi as they approached their destination. The light caught Lacey's attention from the sky and as she looked in its direction, she grabbed Nahatsu who damn near ran into the figure from the other side. Lacey quickly drew a kunai and placed it horizontally across her chest. As she held it upside-down, she gazed at the figure who was talking to himself, having to ignore the words of her son. She gave an intense look towards the mysterious man, but didn't speak. He seemed to be in his own world, but she took no chances. Slowly, his face began to spark her memory. Just where did she see him before?

Naruhi finally finishes taking in his surroundings,letting out a breath of relief. He recognizes himself to be somewhere inside the boundaries of konoha but it seemed he had more pressing matters to attend to. Naruhi turns himself slightly to address the people that seemed to be watching him. He immediately assumed them to be ninja considering where he was and the fact that the female was holding a kunai and giving him a serious look that could cut through the walls of seireitei. Something about her face reminded him of....hmm, he wonders. "Excuse me, ninjas of the hidden leaf village, i wish to talk to your hokage, dominic edrick, the matter is of the utmost importance"

(According to nick he's workin in the lab so it's either ur post or haji's)