Chapter 8: Old friends and new friends.

Earlier:

There was no campfire that night because the ground was still flooded with rainwater from the storm. So instead the small group made themselves comfortable on one of the high branches of the trees. Their eyes have adjusted to the dark and except for the cold it was almost like every other night they had spent in the forest. Naruto sat against the base of the tree while Bara sat against Arashi's large figure where he was laying down, his two heads resting on his unusually large paws. It's been dark for a while now and after they had forced down some more Gibonoshita root, all but Arashi who refused to eat it, they sat in silence. Arashi wasn't exactly the talkative type, Bara was in her own little world her mind had created and Naruto wasn't sure what to ask first. There were so many things that puzzled him, who was the oversized dog for instance.

"So… You're Arashi, right." He made sure about the creature's name.

The wolf moved his head in a nod-like manner. "Yes, I am Arashi on kokoro. And what is your name young boy?"

"I am Naruto Uzumaki, a great ninja and the future hokage." He answered proudly.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Naruto Uzumaki, great ninja and future hokage." The wolf bowed his black head in honor, taking Naruto's bragging literally. The boy grinned and scratched the back of his head, pleased by what he just heard.

"Hey Arashi, I was wondering, how long are you staying? I mean, don't you need to go home to where you came from before you were summoned?"

"No young Naruto, my pack is capable of taking care of themselves and I shall stay with young Bara in till I am completely sure she will be safe."

"How did you two meet anyway?"

"I'm not exactly sure." Bara joined the conversation. "The first time we met in person was about seven years ago when Arashi here helped me out of some trouble I ran into with a particularly grumpy store owner. But we have spiritually known each other for almost our entire lives."

"I don't understand." Naruto had that deep-thinking look on his face again.

"Well, you know about the mark on my neck right?" Naruto nodded. "I'm not sure when, but when I was still very young someone used a jutsu to combine our souls. The result was this mark, it unites Arashi and me. Not only can we sense when the other is in danger, but if one of us dies, so dose the other. The secrets to that jutsu have been lost for many years now. And somehow it keep's us spiritually together. So even if we have never met for the first few years of our lives we always knew that there was someone else around."

"Huh? What do you mean your souls were combined?" Naruto was very confused, and curious.

"It's hard to explain." Bara thought for a moment.

"The mark creates an unseen chakra link that is always present. The link is connected to both of our souls and creates a mirror effect; whatever happens to one soul happens to the other." Arashi explained.

"Oh, I see." Naruto nodded in understanding. "But then why wasn't Bara injured as well when those ice spikes pocked holes in your paws?"

"I wasn't injured because only our souls are linked, not our physical bodies."

"There's one more thing that I don't understand. Why would anybody want to connect two souls? So far it sounds like its more trouble than anything else."

"I'm sorry, but I really don't know." Bara apologized. Sometimes she wishes so badly that she did know.

"There are only two reasons for the use of this jutsu." Arashi answered, shocking both Naruto and Bara.

"Arashi, did you actually manage to gather information about the jutsu?" Bara asked. She was partly shocked and partly disappointed by the fact that her friend hadn't told her earlier about this.

"Yes, I apologize for not informing you earlier."

"Well then tell us what the reasons are. Come on all ready." Naruto complained, growing impatient.

"One of the reasons is to kill someone who is hard to defeat. It is quite simple to understand because all you need to use the jutsu is a person who's soul you can combine with that of the person you would like to kill and a sample of the of that person's physical body, hair for example. Then once the jutsu is complete all you have to do is kill the person you combined the other person's soul with and the one you intended to kill shall perish as well." The beast explained.

"I think I understand, but that can't be the reason our souls were combined since we are both still alive and we were both still so young and vulnerable back then." Bara thought out loud.

"Correct. The other reason is if you want to ensure someone is always protected. If you combine someone's soul to another's who is powerful it forces that person to protect whoever you wish to keep safe. This reason is less commonly the cause of someone using the jutsu because most people would prefer to ensure someone's safety themselves and this jutsu uses an enormous amount of energy."

"This doesn't make any sense. Nether of these reasons seem to fit our situation. Are you sure those are the only reasons?" The wolf only nodded with both of his heads in reply.

"Okay, you lost me at "kill someone who is hard to defeat"." Naruto scratched his head in confusion. Bara sighed. She wasn't feeling like explaining everything to him.

"Never mind, just forget about it. I'll explain it some other time. Right now I'm tired." She said as she made herself comfortable against Arashi. "He sure makes a comfy bed if you're out in the wild." She thought smiling to herself.

Arashi's white head gave a yawn as he put both of his heads down to rest on his huge paws and soon soft snores came from him he breathed in and out.

Naruto was tired two and soon all three of them were peacefully asleep.

Now (Present time):

Bara blinked the sunlight that creped through the leafs of the trees out of her eyes. She sat up and straight and stretched her arms. She had a great night's sleep. Slowly she looked at a sleeping Naruto and a still snoring Arashi. Smiling to herself she stood up and jumped off the branch. While the others were still sleeping she had decided she might as well go searching for something they could eat. With a sloshing sound she landed with her bare feet in the mud that covered the forest floor. This made her giggle with pleasure. She loved the feeling of mud between her toes. The brown semi-liquid came up to her ankles. As she walked around searching for herbs her feet left a trail of holes in the muddy floor. Lady luck seemed to smile upon her as she came across a Taimaberi plant covered in small ripe fruit. She stuffed as many as she could into the pockets of her black jacket and ate some in the process. They were deliciously sweet as honey. This day was definitely starting off great. Hopefully their luck would hold and they could reach the Gake no aki mountain by the end of the day. Now that she thought about it, it was taking awfully long for them to reach it. She had expected to be there by now. Shrugging she decided to think about it later as she threw another of the sweet fruits into her mouth.

"Are you planning on sharing?" A voice suddenly came from above her head. She let out a small scream as she fell backwards out of shock. The mud made a minor splash as she landed in it.

Naruto was standing on the base of a tree close to the Taimaberi plant; his feet attached to the tree's side as if gravity was some kind of lame joke. Bara glared at him from where she was sitting in the mud.

"Naruto! You nearly scared me to death!" She yelled at him.

He smiled at her and let out a small laugh while scratching the back of his head. "Sorry about that."

But he wasn't forgiven yet. Scooping up a handful of mud Bara launched it at him. The mud hit his cheek, spreading across his face and breaking his concentration. He lost his grip on the tree and with a splash fell into the mud below. She couldn't help but laugh at him as he stood up. His entire front and half of his face was covered with dark-brown near black mud, the white and blue of his left eye were the only colors on that side of his face.

"What was that for? I said I was sorry." He complained as he brushed some of the mud off with his hands.

Bara couldn't answer, she was laughing too hard. "You, you should see your face!" She finally forced out between the laughter.

The laughter seemed to be contagious because soon Naruto was laughing at himself as well. He also scooped up a handful of mud and threw it at his female comrade which had managed to stand up. He missed. The mud passed Bara's head and stuck itself onto Arashi's black fur. The large wolf had appeared behind her while they were laughing.

"What are you doing young ones?" He asked with a confused tone as the mud slipped off his coat. This made the two young teens burst out with laughter again.

"Don't tell me you have been the leader of that pack so long you don't even remember what it's like to play and have fun." Bara said as their laughter finally came to a stop.

"I do remember, but getting dirty in mud wasn't on my list of games." Arashi explained.

Bara took a deep breath as she calmed down. She fiddled in her jacket pockets and tossed one of the small fruits to Naruto. "Sorry that it's a little dirty from the mud."

The boy looked at the small ball in his hands. It was a little dirty form the drying mud on his hands, but other than that it seemed fine. He stuck it in his mouth. Once you got over the sandy taste from the dirt it was actually pretty good.

"You like it?" Bara asked over her shoulder as she tried to force one of the fruits into one of her beast-friend's mouths, not that she was getting anywhere. The wolf was hungry, but muddy fruit wasn't his idea of a healthy meal.

"It's good, but I think I'd prefer some without the mud." Naruto answered as he walked over to the bush covered in the little fruits. He picked one of the little orange balls.

"Wait!" Bara yelled just as he was about to eat it.

"Why, what's wrong?"

She walked over to him, leaving Arashi to sigh inwardly with relief. Grabbing the small fruit out of his hand before he could pop it in his mouth she picked another of the little fruits and showed both to him. The one Naruto was about to eat was a slight redder color than the golden one she had just picked.

"Yours isn't ripe yet, those are poisonous." She explained, handing him the edible golden fruit. "Maybe you should leave the responsibility of choosing the food to me." then turning towards Arashi "And you, I know you don't like fruits but unless you can find a rabbit somewhere out here you are going to eat this." She said with a threatening look.

The beast sighed heavily and forced down the small fruit his friend tossed to him. They ate in till they were full.

Afterwards Bara and Naruto looked at themselves. The mud had dried, covering them with grey coats.

"Maybe we should find the river and wash this off." The mud was already starting to irritate the girl's skin.

"Yeah, that's a great idea. Um, where is the river exactly?" Naruto asked.

"I can smell fresh water in this direction." Arashi started leading the way and soon they came to a river that flowed peacefully between the trees.

"All right!" The boy yelled as he pulled off his orange jumpsuit top and plain black shirt. Laughing happily he dived into the river water. He quickly came up again, shivering fiercely. "So, COLD." The low temperature didn't stop him though as he swam round in circles. "Come on guys, once you get use to the temperature it's actually fun."

Bara stood there hesitantly. Slowly she poked her toes in the slow moving water. It sure was cold. Thinking thing through for a moment she decided that she had to get clean anyway. Taking off her jacket she walked into the river. At first it felt cold as ice, but her skin soon became accustomed to the lack of heat and she found that as long as you don't stay still it wasn't so bad at all.

"It is fun. Arashi, aren't you gonna join us?" She called to her beastly friend.

Arashi only eyed the calm flowing water with an expression of disapproval. "I do not enjoy getting wet." He answered back.

"Come on, you sound like a cat." She tried to irritate him.

"Then I'd rather sound like a cat than swim in this water."

"You're such a fun spoiler, you know." Naruto said as he lay back, his arms folded behind his head, and floated down the stream a little.

"What's that?" Bara noticed the crystal necklace around his neck.

"What? Oh this, it's a necklace grandma Tsunade gave me."

"It's really pretty." She commented with admiration as she rubbed the mud off her arms. Her aqua-blue shirt was the cleanest of all her clothes, probably because her jacket protected it from most of the dirt.

"Are you two done yet?" Arashi was growing impatient where he was standing on the riverbank.

"Stop complaining Arashi. We'll be done soon okay." The girl answered before she dived under the water. She loved swimming, it brought back so many happy memories she had of her father. They used to go down to the stream near her home. She smiled as she swam up to the surface again for air. Not wanting to annoy Arashi too much and having cleaned off most of the dirt she came out of the river. The wolf walked over to her, his large paws still covered in mud.

"Did you enjoy your bath young Bara?"

"Yes, thank you. Sorry for keeping you waiting." She squeezed some of the water out of her hair.

"Huh? Are you done already?" Naruto asked disappointed at having to climb out as well.

"We have to get a move on if we want to get to Gake no aki mountain soon." She replied.

"I wanted to talk to you about that." Arashi said as Naruto was coming out of the river, he was almost clean again now. "Have you noticed that it is taking a lot longer than we expected to get there?" Both Bara and Naruto nodded, Naruto now putting on his shirt and jacket.

"I believe we are going in circles."

"What?! You mean all this time we were traveling we were getting nowhere?!" Naruto didn't like this.

"Arashi that's impossible. You have an excellent sense of direction and we have been traveling along the river all the time, there's no way we are going in circles." Bara explained completely confused.

"I can not understand it either, but something is definitely not right."

"Well then let's just travel next to the river at all times, I'm sure it won't flow in a circle." Bara suggested.

"Good idea. Now lets go" Arashi readied himself for takeoff.

"Wait just a sec." Bara quickly pulled on her jacket that still lay next to the river. In her haste she accidentally knocked the amulet she had been carrying around out of her pocket. Just as quickly as she had realized what had happened she snatched it up off the ground again and stuffed it into one of her pockets. For a brief second she felt sure that she had felt letters engraved into the tiny piece of wood, but she ignored the thought.

"Right, let's go." She said as she took off, the others closely behind her.

I'm glad to say this chapter is longer than the last. Hope you enjoy. Nothing much to say. Sorry about the low graphics on the new cover, my drawing and computer editing skills aren't that good. Oh and I think I've fixed some of my grammar problems in the previous chapters.