Chapter 3: A Lesson In Chakra Usage
The sounds of strange animals fill the air as Tracy and Lawrence navigated through the dark forest they were in. Gigantic trees were everywhere, hiding creatures in its dark crevices. Lawrence stays nervously close to his friend, who seemed to show no fear to their unknown surroundings whatsoever.
How can she not be scared shitless of this situation we're in? he wonders to himself.
Suddenly, Tracy spots bright light up ahead and breaks into a dash with Lawrence following behind her. They run into an area lit with warm sunlight and breath sighs of relief to know they were literally out of the woods.
"Ah shit."
Lawrence turns to his friend who had just cursed in a tone that wasn't too comforting.
"What is it?" he asks her.
He looks over to what Tracy was staring at and his eyes widen in shock. Before them was a strongly-built fence with five lines of barbed wire lining the top. On the outside of the fence were wooden signs, which gave the two of them a feeling that they most likely had warnings written on them.
"I guess all we've gotta do is just follow the fence to a gate, right?" inquires Lawrence.
"Wrong," answers Tracy. "This is bad."
"What do you mean?" asks Lawrence.
"If I'm right, which I'm really sure I am, we've been transported into Shi no Mori," replies Tracy ominously.
"What's Shi no Mori?" Lawrence asks hesitantly, afraid of what the answer might be.
Tracy looks at him with fearful eyes.
"Forest of Death," she answers.
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Stephanie and the others head into Konoha hoping that they would blend in with their new clothes and younger age. Unfortunately, the villagers gave them strange looks when they came in, adding anxiety their situation even more.
"Why are they looking at us?" Kevin asks through clenched teeth.
"Well, the fact that we're traveling in a huge-ass group might have something to do with it," responds Jon.
"That plus the only ninjas at our supposed level who travel in a group like us are the main ninjas in Naruto," adds Stephanie.
"Should we split up?" asks Caroline.
"It's too late now," replies Bao. "We've already been noticed."
The group walked on as if nothing happened, heading in the direction of the hot springs where they hopefully will be less noticeable. To their chagrin, three little kids wearing green goggles on their heads had begun following them around when they stepped into the village. They were most interested in Bao and Robert, who both had particularly brown skin and really stood out from the group.
"Ah, fuck," curses Robert, turning around to face the children. "What do you want?"
"Hi," said the one with brown hair that stood up on end. "You have weird skin."
"What do you mean?" Robert asks, raising an eyebrow.
"You're skin's brown," said the little girl in the group.
"You're wrong," said Robert. He points to a black spot on his skin. "This is the real color of my skin. The rest is a birthmark."
"Wow," exclaimed the three kids in awe.
"You've got the biggest birthmark we've ever seen," said the sniffling kid with glasses.
"Great Robert," spoke up Jon sarcastically. "We're supposed to lose them, not make them more interested."
"My name's Konohamaru," introduced the boy with the standing brown hair.
"I'm Moegi," said the girl.
"And I'm Udon," greeted the second boy with glasses.
"Oh, I thought they looked familiar," comments Caroline.
"Well, it was nice meeting you kids," said Robert. "Now scram!"
"Do you guys live here?" asks Moegi, noticing the group's forehead protectors. "I've never seen you guys around before."
"Yeah, I've been wondering about that too," adds Udon. "Which part of the village do you guys live in?"
"Uh," began Stephanie nervously.
"I wish Tracy was here," utters Priscilla. "She'd know what to say."
Suddenly, a huge red frog appears behind the group. The preteens turn around to find an old man with long white spiky hair and a strange personality.
"Ah, are these new genins?" he wonders. "I wasn't aware we had a graduation ceremony recently."
"Who is this guy?" Kevin whispers to Stephanie.
"Ero-Sennin," utters Caroline. "Perverted Hermit."
"EH?" exclaims the man. "The only person who ever dared to call me that is a blonde genin known by the name of Uzumaki Naruto. I've never met any of you before. How do you know my secret nickname?"
The group gulps in nervousness as the old man looks down on them from the top of his summoned frog.
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"Hurry up!" Tracy yells at the boy behind her as she ran.
"That's easy for you to say!" replied Lawrence. "You're ass isn't close to this thing's mouth!"
The two preteens were running desperately from a huge centipede crawling quickly after them. Just then, the grassy pathway ended at the trunk of a giant tree creating a natural dead end. Surprise at the sudden end to their escape, all Tracy and Lawrence could do ishalt at the roots and turn around to see the carnivorous centipede closing in on them fast. Lawrence looks over at the girl who was shaking with fear.
She's scared out of her mind, he thought. I've gotta do something.
He takes out a kunai just as the centipede is upon them. Before he could even move a muscle, a blur of black shot up at the giant insect and hacks off one of its main mandibles. The blur lands in front of the creature and a familiar figure stood there. The figure was none other than Tracy, who was just by his side a few seconds ago.
"What the?" exclaims Lawrence, blinking in disbelief. "First she's scared shitless and now she's fighting as if she's been training her whole life for this."
Roaring in pain, the centipede slams its head down on Tracy, who leaps quickly out of the way. Taking out a set of kunais, the girl focuses her attention on the creature's head and shoots her weapons accurately on certain spots on the head. Lawrence watches as the monster falls to the ground, its blood oozing out of the wounds inflicted upon its head.
Tracy lands a few feet in front of Lawrence, shaking tensely and breathing heavily. Summoning up what was left of her strength, the girl turns around to walk back to her friend.
"What was that all about?" asks Lawrence. "I thought you were so scared you couldn't move."
"I forced myself to be scared on purpose," answers Tracy.
"On purpose?" repeats Lawrence. "Why would you do that?"
"You don't know much about the human body, do you?" inquires Tracy.
"What do you mean?" questioned the boy curiously.
"When a person feels truly afraid, the body reacts by producing adrenaline," explains the girl. "Adrenaline is a liquid substance that gives your body an extra boost of energy so it would be able to run from danger. That's a natural survival function that exists in all creatures, including humans. Knowing this, I learned to force myself to be scared when I need to so I can use the energy to fight. Of course, the effects of adrenaline are only temporary so that's why I killed the centipede as fast as I did."
"Don't you have anything better to do in your spare time?" wonders Lawrence.
"Hey," exclaims Tracy. "I just saved our butts with that information so you watch your mouth."
Lawrence was struck speechless by her response. Perhaps Tracy has been making better use of her time than he has. Then again…
"Even with adrenaline, you couldn't possibly have that much energy to jump up as high as you did," he notes. "How much have you been training yourself?"
Tracy sighs in exasperation. Now that they were out of danger, she figures she could spend the time explaining the aspects of the world of Naruto.
"You'd better sit down," she tells him. "This is going to take a while."
The two of them finds a safe place to sit down at and Tracy starts her explanation.
"Okay," she began. "First off, you know about life energy, right?"
"Life energy?" repeats Lawrence.
"The Chinese call it chi, the Japanese call it ki, and the Indians call it chakra," affirms Tracy. "Call it whatever you want, it's all the same thing."
"Ooh-kay," responds Lawrence.
"Now, in the world of Naruto, life energy is referred to as Chakra," explains the girl. "Everyone has it but only ninjas, or shinobis, know how to use it to their advantage."
"Uh-huh," responds Lawrence.
"When Chakra is combined with spiritual energy and a combination of hand seals, the result is a jutsu, a technique," continued Tracy.
"What are hand seals?" inquires the boy.
"Hand seals are hand positions that are based off the twelve animals of the zodiac," answers Tracy. "Each technique uses a different combination of hand seals in order to be performed."
"Okay," affirms Lawrence.
"Now that you know that, you understand where my extra energy comes from, right?" asks Tracy.
"Yeah I guess," answers Lawrence. "But how did you learn to how tap into your Chakra so quickly?"
"Your Chakra is the same as your physical energy," explains Tracy. "Just train your body to be stronger and you'll tap into your Chakra easier. Since I took some martial arts, I'm pretty experienced with tapping into my energy."
"I see," comments Lawrence, blowing some of his hair out of his face.
"Lemme fix that," said Tracy, walking over to the boy.
She takes her hand and brushes the boy's long short hair back. Then she parts the strands evenly, exposing a nice line of skin from the center of his forehead to the back of his head. Lawrence shakes his head a bit, noticing how his new hairstyle doesn't fall into his face like his old one did.
"Much better," notes Tracy, seeing how her friend now resembles the glasses-wearing Yakushi Kabuto.
She gets up to her feet and looks up at the huge tree they were sitting under. Curious, she focuses some of her Chakra on the bottom of her feet. She then put one foot on the tree trunk and then began walking slowly up the tree, trying to keep the amount of Chakra constant. Lawrence watches in disblief as his friend walked up the tree as if she had glue on the soles of her feet.
"How did you do that?" he asks her.
"Just focus some Chakra onto the bottom of your feet and step on the trunk," Tracy shouts down at him.
"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" he wonders to himself. He closes his eyes and relaxes his body. "Maybe if I imagine energy on the bottom of my feet…"
He opens his eyes and places one foot on the tree trunk. Feeling it stick, he places his other foot on the trunk and slowly began walking up the tree. Suddenly, one of his feet slips and he falls to the ground flat on his back with a groan.
"Are you okay?" Tracy yells down at him.
"I wonder," Lawrence mutters to himself irritated.
Tracy leaps down and lands next to the boy.
"Why can you do it and I can't?" he asks her.
"You're just not familiar with your body, that's all," replies Tracy.
"How am I not familiar with my body?" inquires the boy. "I've been using it since the day I was born!"
"I mean that you don't know how to use it to the fullest," clarifies the girl.
The both of them get to their feet and looks at one another.
"So how do we get out of here?" Lawrence wonders.
"We just have to get to the tower in the middle of the forest," answers Tracy.
She climbs up the tree using her Chakra and grabs hold of the highest branch. Using this as her vantage point, she scans the forest looking for any manmade structures. She eventually finds the red tower she'd seen when watching the Chuunin Arc of the Anime series.
"Over there!" she shouts and points in one direction.
She climbs down the tree and head in the direction of the tower with Lawrence by her side.
"So what do we do when we get there?" asks the boy.
"Hopefully there'll be someone there who'll take us out of this crazy place," replies the girl. "Once we're out of here, we'll go look for the others."
"Sounds like a plan," comments Lawrence.
Unbeknownst to them, a mysterious figure is watching from afar, high up in the darkest parts of the trees.