AN: I do not own Naruto or One Piece

Chapter 4: Level 2 woes

Impel Down Arc 4

x-x

Putting his hand along the wall as he dropped, Naruto used the friction to help slow down his descent as he could finally see the bottom. Crouching, he impacted hard on the stone but only made a few spiderweb cracks. Looking around the dark area, he found four paths to take that made the large circular room something of an intersection. Wondering which direction to choose, Naruto stumbled and used the wall to help him keep himself upright as Sage Mode ended.

An incredible fatigue came over him and he was forced to sit as his body cried out in protest to any more movement. Breathing heavily, he cringed as he felt a familiar feeling coming up from his stomach. As Yogarasu emerged from his mouth, Naruto wanted to be sick and soon demanded, "We need to find a better way or you'll just have to stay out permanently because I'm fed up with swallowing and regurgitating you."

Frowning as he didn't like it anymore than the blonde did, Yograsu turned his attention to the new area they were in and examined all that he could with his one eye. 'Good, I don't see any of those snails but I am getting a terrible feeling about this place,' he thought and made sure nothing was coming down any of the hallways before looking to the blonde to see how Naruto was doing.

"I'm just tired, Yoga-san," was all Naruto responded with to the look of concern that the crow was giving him. What he really wanted was to just go to sleep but he also understood the dangerous situation they were in. If the prisoner was right about Level 2, then if he slept, he likely would be woken up when something tried to eat him.

"We need to move and find some kind of shelter," said the crow with urgency in his voice and Naruto understood, pushing his body to slowly get to his feet and using the circular wall for support. "Which way?" the blonde asked as he again examined each of the four choices but couldn't see which way was the best to take. The area they were in was quite dark and the ends of each hallway appeared brighter but nothing beyond could be seen.

Two of the hallways had short staircases while one had numerous tall arched hallways that didn't appear to lead back to the other hallways but could have gone anywhere. Another of the hallways led to a t-shaped intersection with faint traces of light coming from both choices. The overall design appeared to be designed to confuse anyone that fell into the pit, presenting them with many choices which possibly all led to places they didn't want to end up.

'A good sense of smell or the ability to sense the creatures would be the best thing to have right now, unfortunately, we have neither. My best sense is my sight but that won't help and I can't hear anything in particular...but one way does seem quieter,' Yogarasu thought and decided to relay that information to his partner.

Naruto thought over what Yogarasu had said and decided to choose, "Let's take the quiet path," he said but the crow was quick to protest, "Hold on. A quieter path isn't necessarily a good thing. We're dealing with unknown beasts here." Sighing, Naruto looked at the other available options before pointing out one, "Lets go this way."

"And what are you basing that decision on?" questioned the bird, to which Naruto simply responded, "Nothing."

"Hmph, fine, good enough for me," said Yogarasu because he knew that moving was probably better than sitting still and waiting for something to show up. Slowing down to keep a steady pace with Naruto, they crept down the straight hallway that had been chosen. Straining their senses for any sign of movement or noise, they had nearly reached the end and come out into the light when a group of shadows moved across the floor at the opening. As the shadow got larger and a creature emerged to look around the corner, it was quickly followed by four others.

They were sniffing the ground and Naruto stared at them from the ceiling of the opening as he stuck to the stone wall with chakra. Looking to the nearby perched crow, he gave Yogarasu a look as if to ask, 'What the heck are those things,' the bird made a motion like a shrug and they continued to stare at the odd lion-like creatures. Unlike a lion, however, the creatures heads were larger and had facial features more similar to a human with flat faces and dark eyebrows.

Watching them finding his scent, Naruto angled his head so he could hear better as he actually thought he heard them saying something. "Katsudon," said one as it slowly followed the trail back to the circular room he had fallen into and another one seemed to reply, "Panties." Though neither prisoner couldn't tell whether they were trying to use the words to communicate or just able to use human speech, it was pretty creapy.

Deciding not to stay on the ground, Naruto slowly moved along the wall with Yogarasu grabbing the striped shirt and holding on. His hand movements were careful as he didn't want the chains on his cuffs to rattle or make any sound that would attract attention and he also had to use his palms because his fingers were still injured. Coming out into the main prison area of Level 2, their eyes widened as they could finally see the cavernous level. It was a myriad of arched entrances, staircases, arched bridges and wooden walkways that seemed to have no end in terms of length. They could tell that it appeared to be five floors high, but the openness of the hallways and levels made it very confusing. 'I'm getting dizzy just looking at it,' Naruto thought and he wondered where they should go from there.

Prison cells appeared to be placed all over the place. Some of the placements made sense and were all aligned but others were of varying sizes and almost randomly placed . Also, nothing seemed symmetrical between both sides of the hallway. The only similarity in the level was the famliar looking stone that seemed to have been used throughout Impel Down. A growl could be heard either in the distance or close by as it seemed to echo through the level. 'So not only do I have to avoid what's here but also keep from being seen by other prisoners,' Naruto thought and continued to move away from the lion-like creatures, hoping they wouldn't look up or start following him.

"Where exactly should we go?" Naruto asked while he kept moving along but knew that he couldn't keep sticking to the wall forever. "I have no idea," Yogarasu replied, explaining, "I didn't think it would look like this. Finding some place high up would be best, that way we could escape the creatures that we've seen so far...wait, stop," he said in a hushed but emphasized voice and Naruto refrained from taking crawling any farther.

Though he was about to ask, he soon heard what the crow was referring to and looking down. Yogarasu had spotted something stuck to the wall beneath them. The snail was placed on the wall, but it was facing down towards the ground. Making a, 'Zzzeeeeeee,' sound as it's head panned back and forth, Naruto and Yogarasu watched as it continued to move in the same simple patter; only taking a break as it reached the farthest it could turn it's head and then going back in the other direct.

'They really are like some kind of security cameras,' they both thought and knew that they needed to be more diligent from then on. Moving past the snail, they continued until Yogarasu spotted something, "Up there," he said and pointed his beak towards one of the large wooden walkways that was several floors above them. "The bridges?" Naruto questioned and the crow nodded before saying, "The angled supports on either sides. Those should give us some cover and a place to hide for now. We need to rest and strategize." Naruto nodded in understanding and headed to the closest wooden bridge that they could see.

Trying to stay completely out of sight was proving impossible as, even crawling on the wall, the area was open enough that unless he moved to the ceiling, they would be visible at some point, so Naruto resorted to jumping or even moving as swiftly as he could along the wall on just his feet so he could get to the hiding spot. As he moved, Naruto could feel his feet starting to slip as he tired and chakra control grew harder. Finally reaching the bridge, he climbed up the large timber supports and laid down on the face of the heavy angled beam. Sliding to keep himself from the edge and in the shadow of the walkway as best as he could, Naruto stopped moving to rest.

Jumping off Naruto, Yogarasu found a nice perch in the corner of where the beam connected to the stone and looked over the area. He hoped to identify further threats to them while the blonde tried to catch his breath. 'This place is a maze. Hallways and corridors splinter off in all directions and I've lost track of where we came in at,' admitted the crow as he looked down below.

'I've looked at several cells along our journey and most are full, though the prisoners seem lethargic and few if any were even looking outside their cells. Hopefully that means we weren't spotted,' thought Yogarasu as he continued to remain watchful over the levels below them.

"I'm guessing this place is only temporary?" asked Naruto while he stared at the underside of the walkway above him and the crow soon responded, "Indeed, we can't stay here as there isn't enough cover. Perhaps ten or so minutes at most would be good. Also we won't be able to get any food and have no idea if guards patrol or not on this level."

Nodding and closing his eyes as he had just shy of ten minutes to relax, Naruto found himself wondering something, "How many of those snails did you see?" Thinking back, Yogarasu counted off the ones he remembered and replied, "At least five. They seem to cover intersections and entrances to certain hallways but there certainly aren't enough of them to cover the whole level. These blind spots will definitely help us."

"Since we have this time, you should get your ninja pouch out," suggested the crow and Naruto nodded as they had fallen asleep before his execution and forgotten to unlock his cuffs. Lifting up his striped shirt, Naruto pooled some chakra into the area where the seal was on his abdomen and when it appeared, the blonde noted that it was already unlocked. Laying back, he closed his eyes and proceeded to enter the seal.

A tugging feeling led him to the familiar underground pathways and he quickly made his way to the seal area. Seeing the gate open and the cell empty was no longer something that surprised him as he moved to the ninja pouch that was on the floor. Picking it up, Naruto glanced through it quickly and found the lock picks that he was after.

'How do I get them out of the seal?' he wondered, standing with the picks and looking around for an exit or some other way. Technically, he wasn't physically there, his body was not real but the ninja pouch and its contents were.

'Do I need to use a handseal from outside or does this mean that if I go back they'll appear in the real world as well?' the former jinchuuriki questioned as the seal was already unlocked and yet the ninja pouch was still inside of him. Though it had held the Kyuubi for nearly two decades, he had never tried to seal anything else inside. The complicated fuinjutsu on his stomach was more than just a storage seal and yet he was apparently now trying to use it as such.

Frowning, he just decided to go back outside and closing his eyes, he felt himself leaving the seal. When he opened his eyes again, Naruto was laying on the same wooden support beam but he noted a cold feeling on his stomach. Looking down, he found the two lock picks sitting on his skin and right on the area where the seal was.

'It worked,' he thought as the items were unsealed with the similar white smoke produced as with storage seals. Pocketing the items, the blonde soon wondered if he could just as easily seal them back inside the seal. With the success, he decided to sit back and try to enjoy the break. A gust of wind soon blew passed and he enjoyed the feeling of the wind in his hair until he realized that something was wrong.

'I haven't felt any wind since we entered here and we're inside,' the blonde recognized and glancing to the opposite support for the bridge, he saw a shadow that soon became a very large face of a creature. The green scaly skin of the head was complimented with yellow eyes and an odd tongue that hung out of his mouth. Almost a full second went by as blue stared into yellow and Naruto wondered what the hell he was looking at.

Unable to speak any warning as he knew what was coming next, Naruto pushed the unaware crow off the support beam and rolled himself off. Moments later, the wood on the bridge splintered and snapped under powerful jaws that tore through it, trying to get to the escaped prisoner.

"You bastard! What was..." Yogarasu began yelling as he spread his wings and stopped his fall but as he looked back, he didn't say anything else as he got the gist of what had happened. Naruto, however, did not have wings and fell to the next walkway below, landing hard on the stone surface before glancing back and seeing the monster that had just tried to eat them.

The large chicken-like creature possessed additional features of some kind of lizard with scales on its head, large sharp teeth, scales on it's belly and even a long lizard-like tail. It was less than a quarter of the size of some of the toad summons he'd used but still large and quite intimidating given it's appearance. A larger gust of wind soon hit both escapees as the winged creature jumped off the mostly destroyed bridge and used it stubby wings to slow it's descent.

Seeing the perusing creature, Naruto jumped straight to ground level and began running away. How tired he had been feeling earlier was forgotten as he focused entirely on the new threat. A roar quickly followed that didn't resemble any creature that Naruto had ever heard before but he kept moving and turned slightly to see if Yogarasu was following with him or not.

"We've been spotted by those snails," the bird yelled to him as a thud on the floor announced the creatures landing which was proceeded by more heavy steps as it gave chase. Not only the snails, but most of the prisoners were now awake and looking to see what was happening as they heard the familiar sounds of the Basilisk finding prey.

Seeing that he wasn't going to lose the creature easily in his current state, the blonde decided to do try something else, "Where are there no snails up ahead?" Naruto yelled but didn't look up as he turned down another hallway and then ran up a staircase to try and put some distance between himself and the creature.

Hearing the blonde, Yogarasu knew what Naruto was after one of the blind spots that he had spoken about. Though he didn't want to, the crow opened his other eye, revealing a Sharingan and used it to quickly identify where the snails where and the areas they were watching. Closing the left eye moments after opening it, the crow strained himself to speed up his flight, moving ahead of the blonde and then turned at the next intersection.

Following the bird, Naruto made a single handseal as he rounded the corner and was briefly out of view from the chasing predator. A moment later, the same blonde in striped prison clothes ran back out from the hallway and continued running further down the hall. Landing on the corner of the second floor, the impact and weight of the creature easily bent the protective railing and caused some of the stone to break as it halted it's turn and eyed the running blonde. Screeching out, it jumped up and glided further down the hall before landing and taking off in a run.

Naruto remained completely still for the instant that the bird was directly above the wall he was standing against. He could feel it breathing and move to look at his clone before it resumed the chase. Had it looked down, it would have noticed a the real blonde prisoner and a crow sitting on his shoulder. Seconds passed as Naruto felt his heart beating out of his chest before he realized that the creature had indeed left and that he didn't have much time.

It was likely closing in on his clone and if it realized that it had been duped, it may try to track him down. 'I have no idea what its intelligence is or how strong its senses are,' Naruto acknowledged before he finally exhaled and relaxed back against the stone wall for some support. As he felt the clone get eaten, Naruto waited for not the influx of information but for the chakra that was returning back to him. It wasn't much, far less than how much chakra he usually had in his clones but as he really didn't have that much at the moment, he needed it back before moving on.

"The prisoners are looking at us," whispered Yogarasu and Naruto glanced over to see a few of the cells in the area had a view of them. He didn't know if they would inform someone that he was still alive or not and had no idea what they thought of a crow. Ignoring everything else, Naruto closed his eyes to get a feel of their current area. 'There are a good number of prisoners but not as much as in other areas. We may be able to find an empty cell,' he thought before moving to the nearest small side hallway and peering down to see what was in it.

He spotted many cells and comparing those with what he could feel, he failed to find an empty cell for them. Deciding it was best to not stay out in the open, he went into the hallway and out of the main prison area. Passing filled cells, the blonde moved as swiftly as possible before he stopped at the intersection in the narrow hallway and looked in the direction available to him. One way led back out into the open while the other led deeper in.

Feeling for the negative emotions of the prisoners, he noted that the hallway leading deeper in contained no prisoners, possibly leading to a dead end, so he turned his attention to the other direction. One of the cells was empty, right on the end and just before the hallway led back to the main corridors of the level so he and headed for it. Moving up the wall, Naruto crawled along the ceiling just above the cells that were full to stay out of sight. Only one side of the hallway had cells and once he reached the cell he was after, he quietly crawled down and stepped back onto the floor. Sitting on one knee in front of the cell door, he glanced at the crow, who nodded in understanding and moved to a better spot to keep watch for them as Naruto fished out the lock picks from his pocket.

Throwing the tumblers on the basic lock, Naruto slowly pulled the cell door open, careful to not let it squeak too much, he only opened it far enough for him to squeeze through. Shutting it behind him, cell door locked automatically locked and the blonde moved to a the back corner of the cell to sit down. His body wasn't that stiff but soon the adrenaline would wear off and he would likely be even more tired than he had been.

Yogarasu was still outside the cell but was able to move through the breaks in the bar grid pattern and walk right inside. Naruto frowned at how easily the crow could get in and out but ignored it in favor of asking a question that was on his mind, "Do you have any idea what that thing was?" he asked in a whisper and Yogarasu looked at him oddly before saying, "Just because I'm a summoning creature does not mean that what we just saw wasn't as strange and odd to me as it was to you. It looked like some kind of chicken-lizard but beyond that I have no idea."

"Do you think it can still get at us?" Naruto questioned and the crow moved closer to the bars to look at the area that they had ended up in. "We are near the end of this hallway but its head looked to large to fit in here and I don't think it would keep trying," he wagered and Naruto gave him a look before inquiring as it why that was.

"Out of all the cells that we went by, did you see any that were mangled or looked as though the beasts that reside here had tried to get in and eat prisoners?" the bird asked and Naruto shook his head while Yogarasu continued with a possible explanation, "I have a feeling that these animals are trained to only go after those out of their cells. The prisoners look more bored than anything else so we shouldn't have to worry about these beasts until we exit the cell."

Nodding as what the crow said was making sense, Naruto rested his head against the stone of the wall and brought his knees to his chest to curl up slightly. Yogarasu moved be behind Naruto's ankles so that he could stay out of sight and hidden in the shadows as he too was feeling extremely tired from the chase and usage of the Sharingan. It was obvious that they wouldn't be going anywhere else until they had a better idea of the level and where they were in reference to an exit point.

x-x

Another day passes

x-x

Hearing a knock at his door and a Marine saying his name, Sengoku sighed before telling the man he could enter. Being the Fleet Admiral meant that all new and information was constantly being relayed or sent to him so he could remain as up-to-date as possible. This unfortunately meant that he had very little time without interruption.

Standing in the Fleet Admiral's room and before the desk, the Marine saluted before relaying the information that had just come through, "Sengoku-san, we've just gotten a report from Saboady that the black flames have dispersed," the man said, stating from memory everything that he had been told.

"Dispersed? You mean they still hadn't found a way to put them out yet?" demanded the Fleet Admiral and the Marine shrunk back a little before saying, "From the information we just received, the flames suddenly stopped just a few minutes ago," which was all the information he had.

'How many days has it been since the fire started,' the afro sporting man thought before he added them up and realized, 'Seven?! That many?' Looking back to the Marine from his contemplative staring at his desk, Sengoku soon asked another question, "What about the escaped...applicants...have we managed to find them?"

"I haven't received any word that they've been found, Sir," said the man and Sengoku dismissed the younger officer so he could sigh in peace without anyone hearing him. With thoughts resurfacing concerning all the information that had passed his desk in the seven days since the initial incident, he recalled even some photos of the fire that had been documented with the originals sent to him and the negative destroyed.

The image of the black flames slowly burning the building to nothingness would likely be etched in his mind for some time to come. "Seven days," he repeated out loud and knew by then, that the building was likely completely gone with only a crater of ash left in its place.

'Was the fire stopped by someone or did it have some kind of time limit?' the Fleet Admiral found himself wondering as he ignored the other reports and paperwork on his desk. It was bad enough that they apparently hadn't found a way to put them out, 'But to last for so long, far longer than any normal flame,' he thought while shaking his head slightly. In his experience, such effects sounded more like that of a mythical zoan or perhaps paramecia but he couldn't think of any legend or story that involved black flames, nor had something similar ever been noted in the files he had his men search through.

Sengoku had already ruled out a logia as that just didn't make sense because there was already the Mera Mera no Mi, but to his knowledge it had yet to be consumed again, nor was it able to produce black flames. 'So the special flames last for days, consume anything they come in contact with but burn slowly and don't spread much...I just want to catch this person and toss them into Impel Down before they do anything else,' he concluded and though it may be difficult, he really wanted the user brought in alive.

Once killed, the power of a devil fruit was somehow transferred back into another fruit, whether at random or by some unknown pattern. Therefore, if they killed the culprit, then the devil fruit would just show up somewhere else and with a different user. The best course of action was to send the user straight to Level 6 so he wouldn't have to worry again about it in his lifetime.

x-x

Waking up with a start, Naruto thought for a moment that he was still waiting to be executed before he realized where he was and groaned because he was no closer to getting out then he had been when he had first woken up in the prison. Looking around, he found Yogarasu under his knees, hiding in the shadow cast by his legs and the corner of the empty cell. It took a few seconds for him to realize that food and water had been placed outside his cell but before he could even get up, he saw movement outside in the hallway.

Worried it might be guards, a monster or some kind of patrol, he stayed still as he watched the slight movement of a shadow in what little light came in the small side hallway. His eyes widened as the cautious shadow darted and he caught sight of the creature as it moved past his cell, grabbing his bread and running away out of sight. 'Fucking rat!' Naruto thought as he just stared at the empty space that was once occupied by the bread. 'A huge fucking rat,' Naruto corrected himself as he recalled the size of the creature, 'It looked more like a dog.'

Just remembering food had made his stomach hurt and he slumped against the nearby wall again before forcing his stiff body to stand and moved to get the water before another rat or other creature stole that as well. The noise from his stomach awoke the sleeping bird and Naruto slowly drank half of the water before offering Yogarasu the rest.

"Did you eat the bread?" questioned the crow as he was rather hungry but wasn't going to accuse the blonde as it was always possible that prisoners on Level 2 weren't fed in the same manner, amount, or frequency.

"A rat stole it," Naruto admitted and the crow eyed him for a few seconds before asking, "A rat?"

"A big rat," Naruto added with a dull look as he wasn't feeling up to defending his lack of action or concern over the loss. He also didn't care if the crow believed him or not.

"Are we talking a sewer rat?" Yogarasu questioned, intrigued about the animal that had stolen their meal. "What does it matter?" Naruto asked back and the crow clarified, "Did it look edible?" Naruto looked back into the single black eye before then turning away. He tilted his head to the side as he considered the question and thought back to the how the rat had looked.

"Yeah, I suppose it looked edible. It's fur was off-white but it looked clean and not skinny at all. It's probably well fed if it steals enough bread," Naruto answered and Yogarasu nodded before saying, "Tomorrow we'll get the jump on it." Naruto smiled slightly at the statement but couldn't help wondering how they would cook it.

When Yogarasu had finished the water, Naruto put the cup back outside the cell for the guards to take and then turned to the bird but before he could say anything, Yogarasu spoke, "We need more food and water. Using the same trick as before will buy us time but with the amount that we're getting, we'll have less than a month before either of us will be basically stuck here and unable to move much because of lack of food, malnutrition and dehydration. Beyond that, I don't think we can last more than a few months on one piece of bread and glass of water day."

"Are all these prisoners relatively new? How do they manage get by with such a small amount?" Naruto questioned but Yogarasu didn't have such answers and merely shook his head. 'There are many prisoners on this level but no way of knowing how long they've been here unless we ask,' thought the crow and so he turned his attention to other matters.

"Despite what I said the other day, I am no condition to train you in anything right now and you are certainly in no condition to waste chakra and strength, even if you managed to learn something useful to our survival. It will remain as such until we find a good place to stay and have more food and water. Since we have some time right now and nothing else to do, we should go through what you have in that ninja pouch of yours," Yogarasu suggested and Naruto nodded before closing his eyes and entering the seal to retrieve the sealed item.

Lifting up his shirt, the unlocked seal was in plain view as the pouch appeared with only a small amount of smoke creation and little noise. When Naruto opened up the pouch, Yogarasu hopped to a position close by so he could see what all the blonde had.

Not bothering with the few kunai that he had left, Naruto pulled out the explosive notes and counted them, finding that he had six left. Replacing them, he then pulled out the medical kit and found it just as he left it. Sakura had given it to him at some point after he had returned form his training trip and his attention turned to the item beneath the medical kit.

It was a small bottle of ointment that had managed to move its way to the bottom of the pouch. The item had been given to him during the Chunin Exams held in Konoha more than three years previously and he had held onto it, using it sparingly and only when needed. 'If I remember correctly, it's almost gone,' he thought and carefully placed it back where he found it. Looking to the last section of the pouch, he pulled out three scrolls and began examining the first one.

There were countless configurations for storage scrolls but what Yogarasu was seeing was something else and it was readily apparent as soon as Naruto started unrolling the first one. 'These are extremely high quality and not just something that someone would buy at any ninja supply store,' he realized and had to ask, "Where did you get these storage scrolls?"

Oh...,' and Naruto paused for a moment before confirming what Yogarasu suspected, "...Ero-sennin made them for me after he looked over the ones that I had and nearly tossed them into the garbage."

While Naruto took a moment as his thoughts moved elsewhere after mentioning the deceased, Yogarasu nodded as he was aware of what had happened but was slightly more concerned over their situation than Naruto's loss of a precious person. 'I wonder how much fuinjutsu knowledge he has?' he thought but decided not to ask at the moment as he wanted to know about what the blonde had inside.

It seemed from first glance that most of the storage seals were full and with various one symbol descriptions that didn't help much to identify the contents. A person knowledgeable with fuinjutsu could make excellent storage seals, good enough to nest them, or simply put, store a storage scroll inside of a storage scroll. This vastly improved upon the storage capacity of just a single small scroll turning it into virtually endless storage space. 'That is likely what he has here, in which case it's actually not that surprising that he has forgotten what he has in these,' thought Yogarasu before asking, "Do you remember now what you have in this one?"

Looking back down at the scroll and coming out of his memories of Jiraiya, Naruto glanced over the letters and recalled what he had placed in the scroll, "This one is mostly camping equipment and items needed for missions which doesn't include weapons. I've got travel cloaks, a tent, extra clothes, my sleeping bag and a bunch of stuff like that."

"What about water canteens and food supplies?" questioned Yogarasu as that was their primary concern at the moment. "Yeah, I should have some of that in here somewhere. I definitely had a canteen and possibly some rations that were leftover from some missions and that I just stuffed in one of these," responded Naruto as he unrolled more of the scroll but was stopped by the beak of the crow and the blonde understood that he could look for it later as it was probably a bad idea to completely unroll the scroll or start unsealing multiple items while in the cell.

"And this next scroll?" inquired Yogarasu, as he motioned to the similar looking small scroll that was in the middle of the pile of three. Taking up the blue scroll, which was different from the green he had been looking through earlier, Naruto said, "This one has extra ninja supplies, some kunai, shuriken, explosive notes, and a lot of other stuff that I got during my training trip and have been using since. I'm not sure how much is left but I had a good supply when I started.

"Excellent, those will come in very handy and are something you are familiar with," stated the crow as the weapons called rifles and pistols were quite odd to them and besides the firearms, most people seemed to use swords and usually sabers instead of katana or ninjato.

"What about the last scroll?" Yogarasu inquired as he had a feeling that the last one was different and was the primary reason why Naruto had originally given him an unsure answer when he asked about the contents of the ninja pouch.

"This one," Naruto said, picking up the blue scroll and he unrolled it so that the crow could see it's configuration.

'This one is even a preservation storage scroll,' the crow realized as such a scroll was a bit rarer than most and could be used to store food items for long-term storage. The seal made sure to take only the intended item as it was, almost stopping the passage of time on the item as it sat inside the created pocket dimension. Though it was primarily made for food and perishable items, it could also be used to store other non-living items such as corpses, keeping them from rotting. However, like other storage seals, it could not be used to seal something living. Few knew exactly how such seals worked and only a seal master was skilled enough to create them.

"Ero-sennin said this scroll was special and would keep the items that I had preserved, so I put a bunch of different things in it after he gave it to me a few years back. Honestly...I've forgotten all that I've put in it. It became more of a place to store things that I wasn't regularly using and things that were personal or even just items that I picked up or had no other place to put them," the blonde said, looking over the single descriptive characters in each of the line of seals.

Yogarasu scrutinized each of the ones that he could see as the scroll was only partially unfurled and likely had many more storage seals further in. 'Wave, Tea, Snow, Travel, Death,...wait?!', the crow thought before blurting out, "Why does that one say death?"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about those things. Don't worry about it right now," said Naruto without really explaining the contents. Though he was really hungry and knew that the items inside that seal might help, he decided better of it, 'They taste too horrible and I'd rather starve than eat them,' he concluded and left it at that.

"Alright fine, but what about the others?" Yogarasu asked and Naruto looked at the first one, 'Wave,' before he started remembering the contents. "The first one is stuff I got from my first mission outside the village. We went to the Land of Waves and a lot happened because the client lied to us. At the end of the mission, there were a lot of persistent mercenaries that came back to try and take the village after their employer was killed. wW defeated them and I was in charge of taking away their weapons. I think I took a few for myself and sealed them away along with a few senbon. Likewise, the second seal is from another mission that I ended up with a few items that I took from enemies," Naruto admitted and Yogarasu gave him a strange look while thinking, 'Most would call that stealing,' but he also knew that it wasn't necessarily wrong.

'He likely didn't kill those that probably tried to kill him so they were turned over to authorities, taken into custody or sent back to their own village. Taking a few items from them isn't all that bad considering whoever he faced, he could have just killed them and taken everything from them,' the crow thought and decided not to comment.

"Aside from stuff related to missions, the rest is mostly personal stuff...," said Naruto as he trailed off and Yogarasu decided not to pry about it.

'So this is what we have in addition to a Sharingan that I can't use without depleting my chakra,' thought the crow and though things seemed a little bleak, he didn't think it would be impossible to get out. 'Careful planning and information gathering will be key. Unfortunately these are both things that Naruto isn't exactly skilled with but that doesn't mean we can't work together,' he concluded and started thinking about how they might catch the bread thieving rat.