it's a 3 for 1!! posted 3 chapters in this all in 1 day lol figured i'd do this because i've gotten a lot typed on this so far so i was like "what the heck i'll be nice" lol, plz excuse Gai's possible oocness, i've always sucked at writing his strange, hyper, weird atitude
dis: don't own naruto
They had been traveling for a good 2 weeks before they came to the ledge Sakura had remodeled. Naruto, Sai, and Sakura were accompanied by team Gai.
Gai-sensei jumped down from the tree he was sitting in and looked over the edge. "That is a bit of a fall and a nasty looking river as well."
The others jumped down beside him.
"How could any one survive those rapids?" Tenten whispered.
Naruto glared at her. "Kakashi-sensei can."
Gai looked sadly at Naruto, "I'm afraid even my eternal rival wouldn't have a good chance at surviving those boulders." He looked over at Neji. "Can you scan the river bottom for any signs?"
Neji brought his hands up to his chest in a seal then opened his eyes staring straight ahead. The nerves near his eyes were popping out. His face creased in confusion.
"What is it?" Naruto asked.
Neji shook his head, "I can't see into the river or all the way downstream."
"What?!" nearly everyone said.
"What do you mean?" Gai asked seriously.
"I can see all the way upstream and around but if I try to look anywhere near or past those mountains, I don't see anything. It's like my vision is blocked or something. I can't even look past the water's surface."
Lee looked up at the nearby mountains, "But those mountains look like they're only a little over ½ a mile away. I thought your range was a mile radius?"
"It is," Neji answered.
Gai looked at Sakura, "Did you find any way to get through those mountains other than this river when you looked for him all those weeks back?"
Sakura shook her head no.
Gai sighed. "Ok, we're going to split up into teams of two and search for some kind of passage past those mountains. TenTen with Lee, Naruto with Sakura, Neji with Sai, and I'll go alone. Meet back here in two hours."
They split off into separate directions.
2 hours later
Tenten and Lee were the last group to appear back by the ledge.
"What did you find?" Gai asked the group.
"Nothing," Naruto and Sakura reported.
"Same here," Neji replied.
"We found a pass going up through the mountains, but it was blocked by snow and there was already a storm starting up again," Lee answered.
"That would be far more dangerous than this river," Gai said solemnly.
They all looked down towards the rapids again.
"Are we sure his body isn't stuck under one of those rocks?" Tenten asked quietly.
Sakura and Naruto shook their heads no. "We already looked the best we could."
"What about downstream?" Lee asked.
"There was no sign there either," Sakura answered quietly.
Gai looked up determinedly. "We will follow this river past these mountains and find Kakashi on the other side!" He did his good guy sparkle pose.
"But how are we going to get past that waterfall?" Sakura asked.
"We'll climb, of course," he replied jovially.
They all stood at the edge of the cliff where the water roared past them over the edge. The ground was shrouded in mist so they couldn't exactly tell how far down it was.
"We're going to climb down that?!" Naruto yelled over the noise.
"Of course!" Gai answered and threw a coil of rope at Naruto. "We'll tie ourselves together then climb down."
They all hesitatingly tied themselves onto the rope, except for Lee. Him and Gai were pumped at the thought of a challenge like this so they tied on quickly. Gai then checked that they were all ready and stepped over the cliff edge. Tenten went after him followed by Neji then Sakura and Naruto and Sai with Lee bringing up the end. The cliff side was barren of any vegetation except for moss and algae which made the climbing even harder because they made the rocks slippery along with the spray from the falls. After a few meters, Gai was finding a climbing path away from the water so they picked up some speed. About half way down was when Naruto started to feel queasy. He looked at Sakura and Sai, but they showed no signs of sickness so I he sucked it up.
¾ the way down the cliff the kyuubi growled in Naruto's head. "Kit, you keep going farther this way and we'll both be sick."
"Why?" Naruto thought back
"Something's not right here and it's making me weak," it growled angrily.
Naruto was shocked. "You're losing your chakra?"
"Yes, you moron. Haven't you felt it?" it snarled angrily.
"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sakura yelled up.
"Nothing, just felt sick that's all." He smiled a little down at her.
She looked curiously back up but didn't say more. Naruto continued climbing down. The mist soon engulfed them all and climbing was made slower and more dangerous. Naruto felt carefully for a foot hold when the line below him tightened fast.
"Sakura-chan?"
"It's ok, I'm on the ground. You three can drop down too."
Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw the other four already untying their knots. He jumped down followed by Sai and Lee. When Naruto tried to stand up straight he got a wave of lightheadedness and sat down hard feeling like he was going to puke.
"Naruto, are you ok?!" Sakura ran over.
"I'm fine, just feeling a little sick."
"You feel it too then?"
Naruto looked up into Neji's face.
"You can't call out any of your chakra can you?" he asked quietly.
Naruto tried to call a small piece into focus in his feet, but nothing happened. He looked up worriedly at Gai. "What happened? I can't get any of my chakra!"
The sensei looked around in the mist. "I've never heard of anybody not being able to focus any chakra, but I can't either. If Kakashi did survive then this would explain why he hasn't been able to come back to the village."
Sakura tried to focus her chakra, but gave up, "This means that if we get into any major fights, we need to be careful because I can't heal anybody. My chakra isn't responding either."
They looked quietly at her.
"We better be moving out of this mist and get a better look at our surroundings," Gai said loudly. "Form a line and retie those knots, we can't loose anybody in this place."
All of them formed the same line again. Once they were secure Gai started walking, keeping the river to his left. After about 10 minutes of walking, the fog cleared and they were able to see clearly. Looming over them was a mix of pine and deciduous trees. The river was running fast beside them, and along its banks were bushes with some dark blue flowers still on them.
"That's weird." Sakura walked over to a bush and leaned close to it. It was sparse looking with little dark leaves, but plenty of thorns stuck out of it. "Winter's almost here yet these are still in bloom."
The others looked at the shrubs as well.
"They don't look very nice," Naruto said.
"I would have to agree with your young spirit, Naruto. Don't let any body touch these thorns, we don't know for sure if they are poisonous."
The teenagers backed away from the bushes.
"Do we still have to wear this rope?" Naruto complained.
Gai looked around. "No, I guess not. Go ahead and take it off."
It was coiled back up and given back to Gai. They still walked in a single file following Gai. The roar of the falls was starting to become faint and sunlight was peeking through some of the trees. After about 20 minutes of walking, birds started chirping, but those strange bushes still hugged the river bank and crept farther into the forest every now and then. The ground started to slope and the trees turned mainly into deciduous with leaves of yellow and brown. The seven ninjas tried their best to not make as much noise, but without their chakra, they were bound to the ground. All except for Lee. He grew tired of making all that noise and jumped up into a nearby tree and jumped ahead from branch to branch like a normal ninja would.
"How can he do that?" Naruto asked jealously.
"Because he's only a taijutsu user," Tenten answered.
"Oh, that's right." Naruto smiled foolishly.
Lee continued jumping ahead and disappeared from sight for few minutes then came back. Gai stopped as Lee dropped down.
"A small path is over that way about 300 meters. It leads down the mountain."
"Good job, Lee."
The boy smiled and jumped back into a tree leading them in the direction of the path.
Sai looked around. "These bushes are getting thicker," he noted.
They walked on the path for four days. It was following the river which was a plus for them since they were still looking for any sign of Kakashi's body. The forest remained thick around them, but thankfully those weird bushes were slowly getting fewer and fewer.
"Are we there yet?" Naruto whined.
Sakura groaned. "How many times do we have to answer? We don't know!"
"Look at it this way, Naruto," Tenten looked at him, "at least your feeling better."
Naruto looked down, "Not really. My stomach's still queasy."
Lee came jumping back. "There's still not much change."
Every one groaned.
Tenten walked towards the river bank. "Are we sure that Kakashi came this far, dead or alive?"
Naruto glared at her, "How can you say that?! He's alive and we're going to find him."
She started to turn around and retort back to that when the leaves and mud under her feet slipped and she fell down the bank, rolling into those spiny bushes with blue flowers. She let out a small scream as the thorns scratched her bare skin.
Everyone was about to run down there to get her out when someone yelled "Stop!"
Turning around they saw some one walking towards them.
"Don't touch those thorns at all, they're poisonous and could kill you if it isn't treated."
All the teenager's jaws dropped and Sakura blushed a little.
"Ka-kakashi-sensei?" Naruto spluttered.
He walked past them and went to Tenten. She looked up at him blushing a little as well. Crouching down, Kakashi pulled out a blanket from his bag and tossed one end towards Tenten. She caught it and Kakashi pulled her out of the bush. When she was standing up, free, he carefully picked a small branch that had both a thorn and a small blue flower. He put it in a side pocket of his bag and put the blanket back inside as well then he stood up and faced the others. They were all staring at him, including Gai because even he had never seen Kakashi without his mask.
The white-haired man sighed. "You can stop staring now."
They all blushed faintly in embarrassment and Sakura asked, "What happened to your mask?"
Kakashi shrugged. "If I'd known I was going to run into you today I would've found another one. My others got torn beyond repair."
Naruto stared angrily. "So after all this, your disappearance and re-appearance allows us to see your face? Why didn't my other plans work like that?!"
Kakashi let out another sigh, "We don't really have time to argue about that if we're to get Tenten help."
"What do you mean?" she asked confused. "I'm perfectly fine."
He looked at her. "Now, you are, but in an hour you'll be lying on the ground unconscious as the poison starts to take affect."
She looked at him with shock. "Is it deadly?"
Kakashi nodded. "With one scratch, you'll get a bit of a fever, but with as many as you've gotten, it can turn deadly, but thankfully it's a slower poison than most so we may have some time."
Sakura looked up at him, "How do you know all this when even I don't recognize this plant?"
"A friend warned me about them."
"So, what do we treat the poison with?" Sakura was starting to get her bag off to dig through her little supplies as she said this.
"I don't know, that's why we need to hurry."
"To where?" Lee asked.
"I know a healer that's a two days run from here."
"Well let's get going!" Naruto started to turn but Sakura stopped him.
"We can't let Tenten run," she stated. "It'll make the poison spread faster."
"Oh." Naruto looked down.
Gai stepped up beside his pupil and gave her the good guy pose, "I'll carry you as far as I need to go."
A sweatdrop appeared on her head.
"It would be best if some one did carry you, Tenten," Kakashi quietly said.
"Fine." She climbed onto Gai's back piggy-back style then all of them took off at a good pace with Kakashi leading.
figured i'd also be nice and make this chapter longer than the others i've posted so far lol and i also figured i'd be nice to naruto and show kakashi's face, otherwise he'd be lookin like a major wannabe bandit lmao
well time to get around for work :rolls eyes: