~NRK~
"So, I'm one of your new counselors~" Jen said with a closed-eyed grin that made Neil's skin crawl.
Though, it was also the bloody hands the woman was sporting.
So, yeah, not a great 'impression'.
"Egghhh," Erin grimaced at the grinning woman. 'W-What the hell is this?' She was kicking herself for not being as awake earlier.
They might have been able to plan for this.
Max just frowned. "Yo, weirdo! Where are David and Gwen?!" He demanded as the woman smiled some more before crouching down to his level. "Y-Yeah, where are our normal counselors…" Max reiterated slowly as he backed up a bit. 'She's creepy as fuck!'
A small part of him taunted himself about his earlier dismissal of Naruto's words.
Because this was so much worse than he'd expected.
"Yeah! And why do you have bloody hands?!" Nikki asked excitedly.
"Oh~ I was just catching some food! I'm an accomplished cook," Jen said, pulling out a certificate.
"Whoa! No more of our normal fun food?!"
"Yeep! Your other new counselor is currently monitoring that old soul by the name of 'Quartermaster', he'll meet us at lunch! So, it's just me and you, me and you," she repeated time and time again to each and every kid without fail.
Ered was officially not cool with this. "... Yeah, uh, what about breakfast?"
"Already done! Why, I was catching food for lunch just now, those pesky birds weren't easy to strangle-up!"
Okay, one, this woman was officially crazy and possibly a MURDERER.
Two, Naruto might just end up beating the brakes off of her.
So, the 'good' with the very bad, hopefully.
"Now, how about you guys tell me your names!" Jen asked with intense attention. "Hmmm… How about you, first, squirt?" She asked Max with a grin.
Max frowned. "Tsk… It's Max."
"Nikki!" Nikki cheered.
"Shh, young lady, Max didn't tell me his last name yet!" Jen shushed the wild child who covered her mouth in shock.
"You're right! I'm sorry!"
Max wanted to slap her right then and there.
"It's just 'Max', alright?" Max emphasized. 'That's already too much, lady,' he thought with narrowed eyes as Jen whined a bit.
"Mmm, well, I guess that's fine… Who's next?! Nikki?"
The kids called off slowly and nervously, most ignoring their last names as Max had save for Ered.
"Ered Miller," Ered said with crossed arms and a cool gaze. "My family's with the government," she made sure to stress.
Jen's only 'tell' was a twitch of the brow.
'Gotcha, bitch,' she'd need to contact her dads when she got the chance.
Sasha's eyes narrowed as the woman faced her instantly. "Hmph, Cera, with a 'C'?" She offered with crossed arms. "What's it to ya?"
"Oh, you all have such delicious personalities!" Jen grinned wider somehow, utterly baffling the salmon-haired girl.
'What?' Something was very off here.
Like 'Garden Mother sober' off.
"Easy there, lady, Flower Scouts property!" Tabii cut in with a glare as Jen gasped.
"You… I can tell from your little aura, you're related to our little wonder boy, aren't you?"
"H-Huh?" Tabii blinked nervously. 'How… What?' Okay, consider her officially weirded out! "Who I'm related to is none of your business."
"Oh, ignorant children, you'll learn in time. The universe welcomes all and establishes a hierarchy! Why, it's like being in Evangelion!" The woman cheered with bright eyes.
For the first time in his life, Neil slowly pulled the gawking Tabii back in some form of a protective nature. "E-Evangelion, huh? That's a… Specific choice in anime," not good.
Either this was the real weeb of the camp or she was even worse than that.
"Oh, definitely! I loved anime like Akira, Bleach, Junji Ito, and Chaos!"
That was a slightly varied set of shows… And several of them sported worrisome traits.
Oh God.
~NRK~
Across the lake, Naruto grimaced as he went through the morning routine with his Wood Scout troop.
"Guys! Serious-!" He began to say before flipping off a rope, landing, and then jumping over a tank of water filled with needle leaves. "Trouble!" Naruto finished as Snake landed behind him with a frown.
"What kind?" He asked.
"I think there are two crazy people at Camp Camp!"
"... Naruto, you need to be more specific than that."
"Bad crazy people!" Naruto clarified as Petrol landed with Edward on his back, chin in hand.
"How bad could it be, really?" Pikeman asked. "I mean, it's two more in an insane dish."
"Eddy, trust me on this, these two guys are bad news. I warned everyone else but I'm not sure. I want all our great minds in the Boys cabin ASAP."
"Hmm… Well, I do like having my ego proven… Very well, after morning drills. Sergeant has been lightening up on the drills due to sales coming up."
Naruto nodded.
~NRK~
Eating breakfast had been a surprising affair.
"It's… Good-looking?" Neil wondered worriedly as Tabii threw him a look. "T-Trauma," he admitted.
"Come on, it can't be that bad," she waved him off as his face went blank.
'No, it's that bad.'
"Tsk, this is stupid, we're just eating her food?" Max grimaced as Nurf ate big portions of his pigeon egg and duck omelet. 'Shit, this is too weird!' He didn't trust Jen, not one bit.
If Naruto, the all-loving bullshit boy scout that he was, could say something was 'off'.
It was off HARD.
"Dammit, I don't want to trust that weeb."
Ered, meanwhile, sniffed the food.
'... Something's off about this,' she thought, putting the food in her mouth.
She chewed thrice with even more narrowed eyes before pulling something out of her pocket and downing it.
She closed her eyes and ate like normal, the picture of 'unbothered' even if her tongue tasted like a bitter pill.
Her throat hissed.
And her mind warmed.
'It's tampered with,' very fucking NOT GOOD. 'It's not poison or a sleeping pill, that'd have shown by now,' Meredith thought as she looked at the ravenous Nikki next to her, the girl eating without care. 'What's in it?'
Erin was of the same mind, the girl's eye snapping to Jen's happy form in the kitchen before a slip left her pocket.
One quick plunge of her pH paper and she was seeing a bright red slip.
'Oh no,' she tugged on Tabii's shirt, gaining her and Neil's attention.
She cut her hand across her neck and they flinched.
Tabii's eyes narrowed before she took both Neil and Erin's plates.
She downed each one with ease and apathy before getting up and heading to the bathroom.
"W-What? How can she…?" Neil asked.
"Tabii's uncle is an agent with her dad, they taught her and her sister some 'safety tips'," Erin explained with a calm look that quickly shifted in distaste. "But it's not good that we needed to use it."
Tabii and Sasha came out of the bathroom at that moment, the salmon-haired girl throwing some gum into her mouth.
"Ahh, thank God for my routine," she said as Tabii grinned in relief with a nod.
'Yep, staying slim has never been so amazing!' She thought calmly as they returned and sat next to Erin. "So, what should we do?" Tabii asked as Sasha blinked.
"Huh? What happened?" She asked.
Her fellow Flower Scouts looked at one another before shaking their heads. "Nothing good," they stated.
"Nope, don't tell me, I already know this isn't going to go well. We'll hopefully have Naru back here soon enough-"
"Did I hear someone say Naruto?" Jen asked, head falling between the jumping Tabii and Sasha before she grinned. "You guys are friends?"
"... What's it to ya?" Sasha asked with narrowed eyes.
"Oh, I'm just a big fan of that brilliant soul of his, it'd light up the world if given enough time and ritual."
What the hell was this woman on?!
"Mm, light up the world?" Dolph blinked. "Jennifer, is that another saying?" He asked in confusion.
"Ah, no, Dolphie, baby boy, it's just some small talk," Jen smiled.
"Ah, I've heard of this, where does the 'small' take place?"
As Jen happily informed the uncertain artist, Preston just looked eternally nervous while Nerris and Harrison blinked.
"Should I cast a spell of truth?" The magic girl asked. "Or is that not going to work?"
"I think I should try and make them disappear… Maybe for good," the magician boy added, tapping his gloved fingers against the table top. "Are we just going to go along with whatever she wants until Naruto gets back? W-What could happen in that amount of time?"
"No, we're not," Max said with a glare at Jen. "We're gonna deal with this and get these crazy people out of our lives… But I didn't plan anything, not yet. I need time."
"... Well, Jen clearly likes anime, right?" Neil offered with a smile.
~NRK~
"O.M.G. existential ANIME," Jen gasped with excitement, seated in front of a laptop in the middle of the woods.
Far away, Neil sighed in relief.
"Good work, Neil," Max smirked. "Now… Anyone got anything?"
"Okay, for one, each of you need to go and vomit ASAP," Meredith ordered with a frown. "That food was not safe."
"It definitely wasn't," Erin frowned nervously. "That food's pH value was completely acidic, you guys should have noticed."
"Acidic?" Neil balked. "There's no way we wouldn't have noticed!"
"... Unless she knew how to change it," Ered frowned with narrowed eyes, Max grimacing. "Goddammit, what the hell did those two let into the camp?"
"I mean, I can only imagine," Max said flatly. "So, what, we need to deal with 'em somehow, right?"
"B-But how?" Preston asked. "And what of the other one?"
They all flinched at that bit of info. "Right… There's a second one of these guys," Nurf cupped his chin. "But if he's watching the Quartermaster, doesn't that basically solve itself?" He asked with a blink.
"We'd have to check," Tabii stated. "I mean, I know cuz gets into way too many fights with that old bastard, maybe he did handle that other guy."
~NRK~
They looked into the Quartermaster's cabin with bated breaths-
"No, it's actually quite impressive!" A David-lookalike stated within their cook/bus driver/janitor/crazy old person's cabin. "But you have such a bad relationship with one of the children… It could change a bit!"
"NO! That one will be destroyed by my hands!" Quartermaster shouted.
"Now, now, no need for such talk! Why, I bet we could really bring you two together with a little sharing circle! Jen had such an amazing idea for this afternoon! You should come! Drinks and food provided for free!"
"Oh God, do not tell me he gets along with him," Max said in disbelief along with many of the other members of Camp Camp.
"W-What trickery is this?!" Nerris wheezed. "T-The Quartermaster? He hates everyone!"
"Or close enough to it," Neil frowned. "Guys, this is seriously getting weird. They're planning something and I don't want to be in any circle these crazies want us in!"
"Maybe it's a satanic circle," Nikki chuckled ominously. "I've always wondered if Satan was any good at telling someone if they have diabetes!"
"This is serious," Ered frowned as Erin considered 'Daniel'. "We need to get rid of these whackos."
"Still, how? I offered earlier that we just call the police. I mean, the worst thing that could happen is that they get left here but have their backgrounds checked," Neil said as Erin perked up with a smirk.
"Of course, that should have been my first move," she said as she pulled out her phone with a flair before holding it in both hands. "Time for some Bonds-worthy snoop-" Erin tried to say.
Only for her to stare at her screen in utter disbelief.
"W-Wait, what?!"
"Huh? What is it?" Sasha asked, looking down at the phone with confusion while Tabii gasped. "Tabii."
"E-Erin's got no bars, Sasha!" The blonde girl wheezed as the others balked.
"Wait, no, that doesn't make sense!" Max hissed quietly. "I've used David's phone here before! I know there's a signal out here! Fuck, Neil has a laptop!"
"It's true!" Neil flipped out. "Oh shit, they… D-Did they shut down our wi-fi?"
"But Jen's laptop works," Dolph reminded them as they all perked up.
"Their personal devices do, do they?" Sasha considered before cupping her chin. "If that's true, no living being lives without a phone! We need to swipe their stuff!"
"What if we hi-jacked the bus?" Nurf offered.
"None of us can drive, right?" Harrison asked.
"It can't be that hard."
"Neither is getting a broken neck," Ered frowned. "The issue is, we need to somehow keep Jen away from her phone. That doesn't seem hard but…"
"If they went to all this trouble, they know to keep that stuff safe," Tabii said. "Jen had her laptop literally by the kitchen with her."
"Dammit, we were this close?!" Max exclaimed.
"That doesn't mean we can't check their cabins, right?" Harrison suggested. "Wait, right, don't we have an old emergency phone in the woods? Like that Bear guy with cancer always says, there's emergency help everywhere."
"Do we even know where it'd be? And what if they found it?" Neil asked.
"Oh, that should be easy then," Tabii smirked. "Naruto built his tree home over it."
"Wait, Naruto's got power… T-Tabii," the nerd began to ask, hope shining in his eyes as Tabii grinned hard.
"And guess what else he built with it in case of emergencies?"
~NRK~
Naruto hurried along with the Wood Scouts, the four of them rushing around the large lake surrounding Sleepy Peak.
"How bad are they, really?" Snake asked as they ran, hopped, or 'rode' in Edward's case.
"You know how I caught that murderer dude sergeant kept warning us about in town?" Naruto said, shocking the three. "That bad. They feel just as wicked as that guy did but they're covered in an odd film of 'happiness'. I don't think this is gonna be easy."
They kept on running, Eddy humming as he pulled out his phone and balked.
"Men, communications h-have been compromised!" He said in horror as Naruto's eyes widened.
'Erin!' He didn't know if this had been done because of one of his friends' talents but he didn't like it. "See?!"
"Hmph," Petrol's eyes narrowed as Snake nodded, the four coming to a stop by a large bush at Naruto's sudden signal. "?"
Seconds later, they watched as Jen walked past with… Was that a bear carcass?
"Oh shit," Eddie whispered in horror. "!" He made hand signals to the others, Naruto and Snake nodding in a different bush before the four of them began to stalk the woman.
As they followed the happily whistling corpse-dragging Jen back towards the camp, Naruto's eyes snapped around to the animals.
They looked scared and terrified. The fish weren't jumping.
The squirrels weren't chit-chatting.
The birds hadn't song their songs.
No, something about the area had even 'gone quiet' and that sensation set Naruto's entire body on 'alert'.
As they followed the woman, the more the forest began to darken or tint red, getting all four boys to stop by an odd 'divide'.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
They looked down at the line of nothing but dirt, a perfectly 'cut' divide between tilled ground and natural grass.
"This isn't…" Snake looked around nervously. "Guys, this is a crop circle," he whispered as he pointed to one side of the circle which ended up being easily fifty meters in diameter.
They could see the designs of the circle the more they looked around, key lines and bits of grass left in the area to make symbols and designs.
"No… Wait, this isn't a crop circle," Eddie wheezed. "It's a satanic circle," he shivered.
Petrol's skin dropped several shades while Naruto and Snake frowned in unison as they turned their gazes to the small cabin Jen had gone into, the drag marks of the bear carcass an ominous indicator of where she was.
"What do we do?" Snake asked the blonde. "She's clearly a loon and we have no communication," he frowned.
"... You're right," Naruto whispered back as they began to sneak back into the forest. "Right now, we need to regroup with everyone else. I can feel them, they're heading for my special place," he said as they sank into some bushes. "Let's go."
They slunk off, eyes repeatedly thrown back at the odd cabin before they double-timed it as the door on it slowly creaked open, an ominous presence within peering back at them.
"Oh, that's not nice," Jen smiled as the boys vanished from the perimeter of her 'Power Circle'. "And they were so close, too, I could have just grabbed 'em," she grinned. "Hehehe, see you at the Sharing Circles!"
~NRK~
They kept on running, all their skin pale, even Naruto's, as they followed the blonde's sensory ability.
It took them ten minutes of nonstop running to find the trip-taking group.
"Naruto, thank God, shit's gotten crazy-Why do you guys look like you saw a ghost?" Sasha began to say, looking relieved before noting the four's worried looks.
"Let's get to my treehouse," Naruto said. "Now, we've gotta talk, pronto."
~NRK~
The entire group grimaced at the new information, fruit juice passed around from the blonde's ice box. Plates of veggies, berries, and herbs finished and an instant mood-lifter.
"These people are beyond fucking weird!" Sasha slammed her hands down on the table, eyes narrowed. "What's the plan? The sooner they're dead or gone, I don't care, the better!"
Many of the others agreed, none more so than Max who grit his teeth before drinking some of the juice.
"Hmph!" He slammed his empty cup down. "Tabii told us that you have wi-fi here, Naruto," Max said as Naruto perked up before nodding.
"I do, it's in the old bunker down below. I don't really bring it out often because it bothers the animals," Naruto answered with a nod as Erin sighed in relief. "The thing is, I wasn't lying when I said it'd take some time, though. That thing's probably covered in roots, moss, vines, and dirt. It'll take time to get it out-Time we all of a sudden do not have," he perked up as the animals all around began to scurry off. "Jen's coming!"
The group flinched at that as Naruto's eyes narrowed, the blonde going to a wall that he slapped and caused a panel to appear, much to Neil's neverending fascination.
"W-We need to work on a project one of these days! That's so cool!" He literally geeked out.
"After all this craziness, sure," the blonde boy agreed as he pressed a big button that began to cast shade all over the home.
"What did you do during the Summer, what the fuck?" Max asked in disbelief.
"It's just a covering of leaves and stuff," Sasha explained. "If they find us here, nowhere is safe. Let's get the fuck out."
"This way," Naruto pointed to a hatch that he kicked open in the side of the home. "We'll loop around to the side and make it so they think they found us."
Hurrying out of the crazy place that was Naruto's tree home, the group did as he said, hurrying across a small strip of land over the river bank to the forest on the other side, the lacking animals an ever-present reminder of what was happening.
As they circled around, Naruto made a slightly horrified confused noise as he brought the group to a halt and turned his head… In Jen's direction?
"What?"
"What is it, Naruto?" Dolph asked. "Did you find another secret hatch?"
"No… Jen's coming this way," Naruto said with a look of disbelief, the group sans Ered, Erin, Neil, and Sasha shooting him weird looks.
The latter four looked pale. "How?" Ered asked slowly. "How the hell does she know where we are… The food?" She paled as Space Kid froze with Nikki. "Did she put trackers in our damn food?!"
"She what?!" The Wood Scouts and Naruto balked as the others grew more nervous. "Oh fuck."
"There you are, my little darlings!" Jen grinned as she put something away in a pouch on her back. "Why, it took me a while to feel you guys out but it worked out! Come on! The food's a-wastin'!"
She grinned for them before grinning wider as she walked up to, and crouched, by Naruto with a sort of giddy excitement.
"Hey, Naru-boya~."
"... Sup, Jen-ojou-san," Naruto said slowly as the woman squealed a bit, eyes flipping twice in euphoria. 'Yep, I'm officially not comfortable anymore with this woman,' not like he had been before but now it was just that bad. "W-What's this I hear about you killing dinner?"
"Oh, that's me working in the kitchen!" Jen gasped. "You finally get to try my food! It was made with you in mind," she smiled innocently.
"Yeah, that sounds right," Naruto muttered. "Looking, I get it, how about we go back and have some of whatever you cooked?" He asked with a fake smile, arms folded behind his head.
"Mmm, it's gonna be such an amazing reaction!" The woman squealed, getting up and grabbing his wrist before walking off with the stumbling blonde in her grip. "Come along, children! The Sharing Circles will come right after!"
Slowly walking behind the duo, Tabii's eyes narrowed before she grabbed Neil's bicep and slowly moved to the back of the group.
"T-Tabii?" He whispered.
"We have to find the wi-fi," she reminded him and his eyes widened at the idea.
"Won't Jen notice?"
"Not if she's as obsessed with my cuz like I think she is, no. That's also why we've gotta make this quick."
Neil nodded, the two of them slinking away from the group under Ered's watching eye, the biker girl nodding to them as she widened her stance a bit and kept the two behind her.
'We'll deal with you and that weirdo, bitch,' she thought, hands in her jacket pockets with her elbows pushed out. 'Just you wait.'
~NRK~
"You know, David, maybe it's me," Gwen began as David raised a brow, the two sitting by a large pond further into the forest. "But do you feel like we should have been monitoring those two?" She asked as she drank from a tiny champagne cup, a trashy soap opera playing on her screen.
"Oh! You're right, maybe we'll surprise them with a hidden inspection," he began to say before whispering to her, half-naked swim trunks-wearing form popping out of the water with a frog on his head. "Oh man, let's see how they like handling the campers!"
Gwen shrugged before getting up off the grass and grabbing her things.
"Alright, let's see what's fucked up first."
~NRK~
Naruto's countenance shifted at the spread before him.
Duck, pigeon, squirrel, bear, beaver-
"Jen," he uttered her name once and only once, not a suffix in sight.
The area grew cold as Jen grinned brightly. "What is it, Lil Naru? Do you like my entire five-course? It was all made, just for you!" She declared.
The air got cold as Max shivered at the gleam in the blonde's eyes. 'T-That shit again,' but, this time, the Indian boy knew what the whole deal was.
It seemed the blonde could feel murderous when he wanted to be. GOOD!
"Snnnn, Jen, I'm gonna give ya a real big warning, any more of this hunting animals in my forest crap, we are gonna have a problem."
The air was filled with a cold promise and the woman's eyes dilated in excitement as Eddie's eyes narrowed.
He whispered something into Petrol's ears and the tall cadet's eyes narrowed as he nodded.
"..." Naruto observed the food for a moment before saying a quick prayer. "Sorry this craziness happened to you guys," he muttered with closed eyes before they cracked open to shoot the now in-his-face Jen a look. "..."
He ate some of the food before grunting and continuing.
By the end of thirty minutes, all of it was eaten much to the others disbelief before Naruto got up with crossed arms.
"Don't test me, Jen," he told her with finality.
"Oh, testing is for squares! We embrace who we are, Na-Ru-To," she smiled. "Now, onto the Sharing Circles!"
"Hmph, before that, I'd say we do some exercise," the blonde said as Jen perked up. "Gotta work off the food, ya know? Be in top condition," Naruto added casually even if his negative emotion sensory skill picked up Jen's obsession spiking. 'What is her deal?'
"SURE!"
Sasha and Ered's eyes narrowed in confusion, annoyance, and observation while Erin hid behind Nurf a bit as she looked at her phone.
No bars yet.
~NRK~
"Wait, s-so, ugh!" Neil wheezed as he pulled on a thin root with all his might before grunting as it came off, the boy hitting his rear with a whine. "Dammit, I'm not built for this… W-Why do you have that hatchet?" He asked Tabii nervously as the Flower Scout returned with a skip before rearing back at the roots. "Oh-"
She cleaved through a good amount of them with one swing, getting a dropped jaw out of the brunette.
"Hehe! My dad's a lumberjack, he's good at this kind of stuff and I've gone to work with him a ton of times," Tabii said with a wink and a finger to her lips. "But don't tell Sasha, she'd flip."
Neil considered her for a moment before nodding, getting back up and going to work on another thin root.
As they worked away, his eyes kept going around the small bunker Tabii led him into.
"Your cousin so amazing," he told her as she cleaved some more before stopping with a nod, wiping some sweat from her brow. "This tree home of his, the electricity, wi-fi, and even this? I-I can't imagine how he does it, it seems so unreal."
"He doesn't look the smart-type, huh?" She asked him as Neil nodded with a hand rubbing the back of his head.
"H-He doesn't but Naruto's so different compared to what you'd expect. We've all got our quirks and stuff, I'm a nerd by trade," he smiled as she giggled a bit. "But he's so… It's hard to place him."
"I get that, Naruto's so different from a normal person and it's not just because he's Asian. Naruto seems to enjoy life so much, like, way more than a kid usually does but he's so respectful, strong, nice, awesome, and wise. My older sister goes to him for advice sometimes. Hell, so do I, he's just got that wiseman energy in him."
Neil nodded before they kept on going.
Maybe ten minutes of that later, they broke through to find a metal vault door.
"It's gonna be rough not having Erin here," Tabii said as she and Neil turned the giant cog-like handle to open the door and allow them to see the clean inside. "She's used to using it, Neil."
Neil considered that before growing determined, smiling as he saw the rather primitive-looking but no less impressive wifi modem.
"I can take a crack at it, not to say your cousin doesn't do good work but Naruto seems like the type of guy who makes things as simple as possible," he said as they walked in and moved to it. "How complex could it really be?"
"A-Actually, you'd never believe it…" Tabii said with a bit of a chortle before whispering into his ear.
Neil's jaw dropped so hard he nearly tasted the floor.
"HE MADE 5G?!"
~NRK~
Naruto flipped, spun, and crouched under Jen's reach as the woman kept trying to catch him.
They'd been at it for what had to be fifteen minutes, the level of exertion beyond confusing as the crazy lookalike kept on going.
"It's like she doesn't get tired," Nerris said nervously.
Hiding in a bush with a couple of the others while another part of their group sat on the sidelines, 'tagged' as it were, she grimaced as Ered kneeled by her.
"How's it looking?" She whispered, startling the RPer before Nerris sighed in relief.
"You're back and, um, her constitution stat is beyond ridiculous! They've been at this for fifteen minutes!"
So, in normal speak, she had stamina for days? Great.
But that's why Ered got her special kit just for emergencies like this.
"Hmph," she pulled a small baton off her back as her eyes narrowed, another weight sitting inside her jacket's hidden pocket. 'There's no need for something so severe,' Ered thought.
Her dads had taught her every form of defense they could.
Some martial arts, even if she was rusty, poison detection, stun baton usage, and how to wield an actual gun, Ered knew it all.
"T-That's some serious-looking equipment," Nerris said as Ered nodded, collapsing the item into a small rod-like state and hiding it. "But it's necessary for this field boss… Still, what do we do about that other guy?"
"We'll deal with him when it comes to it."
Meanwhile, with the dodging Naruto, the former ninja's eyes narrowed as his back hit tree.
He hopped up over her reaching arm before kicking off the tree trunk to go soaring overhead.
'She's too athletic,' he thought as his eyes snapped to the pouch in her back. 'And her senses aren't normal!' Naruto thought as he landed, the woman turning on a dime to face him.
They continued this game of cat and mouse. And as they did, Naruto's eyes narrowed the closer he made these 'calls' before he was literally sliding past the outside of Jen's forearms to get behind her.
A gleam slipped past the blonde's eyes as he slipped behind Jen and shot back in a good distance before she could try to grab him, his back to the deranged 'caretaker'.
When he looked at his loot, Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief before he rolled it up and kept moving before Jen could keep up.
As he moved about, his eyes narrowed in focus. 'If what I found is true, she's not just crazy,' Naruto thought with a look back at the grinning Jen.
And this had just gotten weird.
~NRK Out~