life as a Fox.
Chapter 11
By,
NSW
proofread by best friends and Beta's Katy Cruel, and Deadly Randomness.
I hope you enjoy, I am sorry for taking so long, but two good friends of mind decided to take it upon themselves to teach me Grammer, they even went so far as to give me flash cards and quiz me(LOL). Now they will not let me upload any chapter without them proofreading it and correcting it. So it takes quite a long time for me to add new Chapters, but the plus side, they are 98% grammaticly correct.
btw sorry for the last chapter mix up I promise it will not happan again.
Naruto was drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness, he both wanted and didn't want to wake up, Naruto realized it was nice to just stay here in the black. No more pain, no more worries, no responsibilities, and no more memories, it was a great but terrible beauty; it reminded him of being dead.
The moment he thought that, memories suddenly opened and poured through. He had to wake up, being like this was nice, but nothing could beat being alive. Even if it a world with pain and suffering, one would be able to have choices and create happiness when they were alive, and that he believed was the greatest feeling to have.
Naruto snapped his eyes open. He was on his side surrounded tall grass. He sat up and looked around testing the air, searching for any danger. There was none, instead he found his comrades on their sides in the grass around him. He decided to leave them like they were for a bit then wandered trying to figure out where he was.
He looked out, they were in a hilly almost steppe like country. Instantly Naruto thought of his geography class, he scented the air, finding it had a mineral like scent to it. This meant that there was red clay soil nearby, which meant there were mines. This lead to the conclusion that they where probably somewhere within the Land of Iron.
The Land of Iron was a land far Northwest in the Earth Country. The people here where rugged and dangerous, generations of working mines had bred them into a sturdy, strong, earth smart people. They hated anyone on their lands because they are believed people were stealing their precious minerals. So they started to form bands during the autumn and winter months when the mines where closed.
Naruto sighed this was going to be one long test. He heard the sounds of people waking up so he turned and looked. Ainu sat up holding her head; she looked around and spotted him. She wobbled to her feet, she had no trainee mask. Naruto looked none of them did. He noticed then that her hair was a blonde and was wrapped in a low pony tail.
Hey eyes were a deep green, she had an angular face, Naruto thought to himself that if he were a human he would go out with her, then he remembered he was not human and she was at least 30. She walked over to him "Well what is the news"? He looked back out over the land "we are somewhere in the Land of Iron in Earth country" she blinked and looked at him "how can you tell"? He looked at her "did you know a wolfs nose can smell 100 times better then a humans?"
When the rest had finally woken up, they all sat in a circle, Goza drew a small map in the dirt with a stick, "so we are presumly here" he said pointing to one large blob, "Konoha is here" he said pointing to the other large blob, "But no matter what we have to head Southeast" he said affirmatively, then he looked up to the darkening sky, "I can't tell our position until the stars appear".
There was a silence, and then Toyi finally said "We should find a place to camp and stay there tonight and head out in the morning" Naruto nodded "Over in those trees would be an excellent place for cover." Ichino looked at him "but what if we are found? Is it such a good idea to be limiting our environment to fight in such a tight place?" Naruto shook his head, "even if the locals are on the hunt for us, they would not enter the woods at night, we have superstitions legends to thank for that".
Ainu looked at him "What do you mean?" Naruto sighed "in the Study hour we had, or the days off, I was in the library reading up on legends and superstition of many different lands in case I ever needed to use the information to save myself "Naruto paused "well one of the books I ran across was for the Land of Iron, they have been taught since birth to never enter the woods at night or else strange creatures will grab them and drag them to hell". And as if to heighten the suspense a sharp screech sounding like a women screaming pierced the air, Toyi jumped slightly and Goza looked up, Naruto flicked an ear in annoyance "that was just a Screech owl, name fits don't it?" he said.
Ainu humphed, "I would say so, well lets just hope these people haven't faced their so called fears, I say we go into the forest, besides trees are more comfy to sleep in then the ground, and has better protection."
So they all went into the woods, Naruto removed his grey cloak and Hitai-ate, Ainu looked at him "what are you doing"? He looked over at them "night is when the forest awakes, some animals are more perceptive to human whereabouts then others, I will return when I am satisfied with information."
Naruto first rolled around in a moss pile and dirt covering up human scent then went on the prowls, he sniffed trying to find maybe a mouse or small rodent, he heard one, he stopped and tensed listening to the small sound as the mouse buried its way beneath the earth, he stepped lightly before finally pouncing on his prey he caught the small creature it screamed in fear, he quickly silenced it, by covering its small tiny mouth "shh!I am not going to eat you!" he whispered harshly, the mouse looked at him in both fear and confusion but was silenced.
He attentively removed pressure and set the mouse down but made sure to keep a paw on its tail, "can you tell me if any humans have been around? Or more importantly small groups of them dressed in black? With . . ." he paused as he tried to think of a word the mouse would understand "shells on their face?"
The mouse looked at him for a moment before saying "no and yes, I see two legs with black but no shells, then I see two-legs on the hunt, big herd of two-legs, angry, blood thirsty but not hungry, they bad news". Naruto smirked he caught the right little mouse "can you tell me how big of herd?" the mouse paused "hey, wait! What do I get out of this!" the mouse yelled at him, Naruto blinked "oh, I'm sorry I didn't realize you wanted to be eaten instead of talked too, well my mistake" he said lifting the mouse up "hey wait! Wait WAIT!" the mouse yelled.
Naruto stopped "yes?" the mouse swallowed as he caught his breath, "okay, just a few days ago about maybe three times my front paws were traveling together, okay I hid in my hole all right that's all I know, please let me go! Don't eat me! My mate is pregnant! I...I have almost a herd of micelings to feed!" he exclaimed almost crying now, Naruto sighed and dropped him, "thank-you!" the mouse yelled as he scurried into hid little hole.
Naruto continued on and was able to persuade an Owl to talk to him about the location of these humans, the owl was smarter and confirmed what the mouse said and the owl said they were traveling towards the large river gorge, Naruto thanked him and walked back to camp, he curled inside the hollow of a tree and slept.
The next day at the crack of dawn everyone was up, Naruto gave out the information he had got, Toyi turned to Goza, "are we to be headed in that direction?" Goza sighed and nodded "yes, that river is a marker, one of the only ones that leads southeast."
Toyi said nothing for a bit then he finally said, "if we lie low we will not be found out we should follow the gorge as long as possible", Naruto nodded it seemed like a wise decision Ainu stood, "we should get moving then, the sooner we get to Konoha the sooner we are Anbu", Naruto nodded and followed her lead, instead of putting his stuff back on he rolled it into a tight ball and asked Goza if he minded to carry it in his bag, Goza looked at him "sure, its just a little fabric that's all" so the others put on a camouflage jutsu, and headed out.
Naruto traveled in a circle around the group, always on guard looking for any signs of danger, they stopped at mid day for a break, Naruto laid down, Ainu served out three rice balls for each person, Naruto cleaned his pads and ate, and it was silent for the entire meal.
The continued out wanting to conserve their strength they did not use the invisibility Jutsu, for that day they did not run into anything, they stopped for camp, they each had three rice balls and a small cup of cold misu soup.
Naruto slept until a few hours before dawn then went out to see if he could get any information, it came he walked about quietly his ears and eyes alert, when he smelled smoke, he knew it was not from their camp fire, cause theirs had been put out, he followed hesitantly the smell.
It lead him quite a ways up a large hill, he slunk through the tall grass that hid him from the view of what was below him, three fires burned low with several bumps around each one, he spotted a half asleep sentry looking the way opposite of Naruto. He sat there hunched over and counted the number of men, he grimaced there was at least 15 around each fire, which meant they were against nine to 1 odds.
Naruto slunk back away and quietly yet quickly ran back to their camp, he saw Ainu on watch he motioned for her to silently wake everyone up, the cam was at least a mile and a half a way but Naruto did not want to take any chances, besides the other camp would be waking up soon, once all of them were awake he wrote out in the secret Anbu code what he had seen.
Looks of shock and fear crossed some of there faces, as the realization hit them, this was no longer a 'game' any more this was real, they really could die, Toyi had shaking hands, as he reached for the stick and tried to write out the orders, they were to dodge them as best as possible, they were going to slip into the gorge and walk along the thin trail beneath the over hang of rock, hoping that it would provide enough cover and that the enemy wouldn't think to look there.
They moved silently like a pride of Lions quietly yet surprisingly graceful, they infused chakra to their legs and traveled down the gorge wall, near the bottom they landed, kicking up small clouds of dust, then moved in beneath the over hand of wall, Naruto hoped it was stable rock and wouldn't collapse.
They traveled slowly cause they had to scrunch down and maneuver around rocks and tight spaces, they followed Toyi, this time Naruto was in the back, the dry stone and dust caused much irritation to their lungs and throats, so they covered their mouths with damp fabric using their precious water supply up even faster.
Naruto paused as the crevice made a sharp incline, they traveled up ways for a bit then finally evened out about 50 feet from the gorge bottom, sometimes the ledge beneath the overhang was so thin they were forced to walk parallel on the wall until it became thicker or try and painstakingly inch across and grope the wall for hand holds.
They stopped and rested at midday, exhausted, sweaty, and beat, all of them were covered in the red like clay and dust they each had a drink of water and one rice ball because none of them had the energy or the appetite to eat.
Naruto rested his eyes for a moment and found himself later being shaken awake by Ichino, he looked at him and said "wake up" in an emotionless voice, and even Ichino was too tired to be mad at him.
Boku looked at the single track carefully, it was a few hours old, and lead away from camp, he had came to the top of the hill for a better view of the land, when he noticed a splay in the grass, where it looked as if a creature laid for quite some time, he investigated it further and found a few hairs that belonged to some sort of animal, but Boku had been hunting in this land for ages and knew no animal that had this certain shade of color, a crème almost white color, he followed the slight path a ways until he came upon this track.
It was a wolf track, that was for certain, and judging by the depth of the track it was moving at a pretty good clip to make this track, 'but why would a wolf come that near to fire? Or people for that matter?' but then Boku looked to the woods, and muttered a small prayer, unless it was one of the Vlerwolves, the hunting hounds of the devils, they were said to be the size of any normal wolf, but had the intelligence of a human, could talk and woo fools to come into the woods.
Boku had listened to many a nights of the scary stories, it was said they had strange abilities, they could summon up to a thousand of their brethren in a single howl, they where frightening beast of the night, Boku shook his head 'I am no longer a child, it is just my imagination' but still the thought of going into the woods stirred him on the inside.
He followed the tracks, it was true they lead to the woods, but then he spotted five separate trails leading away from the woods and to the gorge, wolves did not go into the gorge, there was no good pray, and neither did wolves spy on camps, so maybe it was not a wolf but one of those rare summoning creatures he had heard powerful ninja had, anger filled him, powerful ninja who wanted the gold he and his ancestors had worked for.
He brought his fingers to his lips and let out three short quick whistles, he heard the two low answering calls, everyone was now hurrying to him, Boku walked to the edge of the Gorge side, and looked down, they where going on a hunt.
Thank-you to all my faithful readers, I hoped you enjoyed this installation.
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THAT IS ALL.
NSW