Chapter 30

Life as a Fox

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Baru, Gin and Chikao stared at Hinata "wait...he left!" Hinata nodded "yes...he had some business that came up, and he had to leave right away" Baru, Gin and Chikao sighed "now what are we going to do?" Hinata sighed "I know you guys really want to learn from Naruto, and he really wanted to teach you, but Naruto is a very prominent and important person to this village and sometimes there isn't enough of his to go around".

The three of them sighed Hinata smiled "come then, I will show you some things" The three kids jumped up and down happily and followed her outside.

Naruto looked up Sokol was almost a blotch against the crystal clear sky. They had traveled far and fast, Naruto never slowing down he ran at a steady lopping pace. Sokol lead them past places Naruto had been too, they went through places Naruto had never seen before, but not being able to stop for obvious reasons he had to pass up the new sights.

Farther and farther north they traveled, running by day and well into the night before they stopped and rested Gomeg giving Naruto special poultices and healing tea to heal him and to give him his strength back. Slowly ever so slowly the tree's turned into deciduous ones, then slowly they began to taper off. Revealing an empty landscape of jagged rocks randomly scattered out through the area as if a child-god had a tantrum and threw the massive stones about.

The land sloped and flowed in a continuous stream of white and grays mixing and clashing together to cast an almost mystical feel to the land. Loose snow drifted in small clouds over the hard ice crusted snow. Naruto looked about in amazement, this land held a cold, distant beauty, everything in it seemed thousands of years old, and untouched.

During the morning and at night the sun would rise above the horizon and cast a tricky glare over the snow as the crystals refracted the light. Naruto would gaze in wonderment at this new beauty, he breathed in the crisp clean air, and listened to the gentle breeze of the wind that carried no sound accept for the occasion of a bird chirping to the light crunching of snow as a creature moved through it.

Other than that, this land was empty devoid of most commonalities, but after three days of traveling in this land Naruto soon began to notice then at first what he thought was nothing was actually life hidden. On the rocks grew linchins and moss, and near the bases of these rocks small flowers barely an inch high grew, there small heads shivered in the wind.

He watched as the rabbits and mice fed off of these little plants. He also noted that here and there the heads of wheat like grass and they fed random small birds that seemed to be flightless. Naruto enjoyed his time, it was quite relaxing he felt bad about leaving his student's without warning, but he couldn't control his life like most, sometime crap came up randomly in his path and he either had to avoid it or grit his teeth and step in it.

That night Naruto looked up to the stars that shone much brighter than usual because of the clearness of the sky. Gomeg looked up at them with him. "Look" he suddenly said pointing behind Naruto. Naruto turned to be amazed the sky was alive and dancing with light, so many color and hues so many smooth and large shapes, constantly moving and growing.

Naruto sat there dumbstruck it was magnificent a truly unexplainable sight to behold. The lights lasted for what seemed like hours but soon they slowly began to fade and dim then they retracted, and then disappeared from all but their memories.

Sokol nodded "the Great Spirit Bridge is one of the greatest sights to behold in your life" Naruto glanced over to him "the what?" Gomeg interrupted "you see Fluffy, the demons of the north have a more mystical and traditional view of the world."

Gomeg cleared his throat and continued "the great spirit bridge is believed to made of the souls of demons and animals, up there they live on forever in a place of peace and prosperity, and it is said that they are up there to guide other demons" Naruto looked at him "guide them where?"

Gomeg grinned "that's the thing no one knows, not really it has been lost, but there are some theories some believe they are guiding you to an oasis if the demon is lost, others say they will guide you to your certain doom and death, and yet other say that if you are on the highest mountain when the bridge appears you will be taken to the original home of demon's...the other world...or as the humans call it, the spirit world".

Naruto was lost in deep thought for sometime after, 'could there possibly be a way into the spirit world besides being transported by summoning demons...or was it possible that summoning demons were like regular demons...only stronger? Naruto thought about this 'what is the difference between summoning demons and...well...him?'

Naruto contemplated about this, "Gomeg, what is the difference between the summoning demons and us?" Gomeg smirked, "my dear boy, the difference is, summoning demons are the children of the divine demons, the original demons".

Naruto glanced at him "remember the story that I told you of the 13th Goddess?" Naruto nodded "well after she left the palace of the souls, she didn't right away go to earth, she went to a land between the realms, and there she made a demon pair in the image of each animal species that was on earth".

Naruto listened intently as Gomeg continued "she continued to do this until there was many demons of each species, then she placed certain individuals on the earth to populate the demons on earth, however when she placed the demons on earth something happened to their power, you see in the in-between realm the demons were filled with the cosmic energy that filled the realm making them stronger and if I might add quite larger than normal, massive even".

Naruto nodded understanding this as he thought about Gamabunta. "but when they went on earth, their powers were greatly diminished, and they lost their life spans greatly shortened. Now don't get me wrong they are still powerful compared to humans and animals, but compared to summoning demons...we don't stand much of a chance".

Naruto thought about this "then how is it, when they are summoned here they maintain their power?" Gomeg grinned "nothing slips past you don't it?" Gomeg continued "you see we summon them, that's how, summoning is only temporarily, and it is able to sneak past the curse that was laid upon the earth".

Naruto glanced at him "what curse?" "when the earth was created the father god, uttered a curse on the earth after the 13th goddess left, he said that "any demon that enters earth of his own free will. will have his power taken and life force sapped from him".

Naruto nodded understanding "I see...so when a demon is summoned he by-passes this curse because he is not going to earth of his own free will, he is being forced to come to earth and so his power and life force stay with him" Gomeg nodded "exactly".

Naruto thought for a second, "what if we were to enter the other realm? what would happen to us?" Gomeg sighed "Fluffy, the only way for us to enter that realm, is for us to forfeit our life in this one" A chill ran down his spine, "so...you mean, the summoning world is basically a demon heaven?" Gomeg nodded "basically, but the thing is, once you die, there is no coming back to this realm, you don't get a second chance at life Fluffy".

Naruto nodded but bite back the comment "but what if you have gotten a second chance, what then?" Instead he remained silent, then turned over on his back and looked up into the stars, he didn't quite remember when he slipped into sleep, but when he did he dreamed he was running on a bridge made of rainbows, racing against falling stars.

The next day they traveled they finally came across some landscape features, it was almost like a valley only covered in a thick sheet of packed snow. Naruto felt a charge in the air, as if something was going to happen soon, he didn't know why but he just felt it.

Suddenly the ground began to shake and quiver. Sokol shot down next to him "you might want to get to higher ground, there is a migration coming this way". Naruto was confused at the birds words but then he seen not but fifty meter's away a very large herd of strange looking animals.

They looked like deer, only much bulkier, and stalkier, with odd knobby legs with wide flat hooves. Their fur was dark on their neck and flanks but turned quite light in the midsection of the body. They had shaggy beards along their necks and going down to their stomach.

Naruto was stunned at the large antlers on their skulls, he couldn't imagine moving his head with them, he looked closet and noted that all of them add antlers both male and females. The antlers themselves were also oddly shaped.

They curved out tall, and had these strange almost finger like projections on the wide beams of the horns. Gomeg turned to him "they are Caribou" Naruto glanced at him "caribou?" Gomeg nodded "yes, now let's get out of their way shall we?" Naruto turned and ran up the side of the valley hill he reached the top then turned and watched as the massive numbers moved through; the herd had to have at least 300 if not more.

Naruto looked to Sokol who preened himself on a nearby rock "where are they going?" Sokol looked down at them "to their spring birthing grounds, these are all females and juvenile males" Naruto looked at Sokol "where are the mature males then?"

Gomeg shrugged "they wander around in a heard of their own until the females are ready to breed again, then the males will fight for a handful of females here and there then form small or large bands and wander during the summer mating as they go, then the females will leave the male and form their large herd then the cycle repeats.

Naruto shook his head "I don't know how you know so much about so many things" Gomeg smiled "it's easy, give up your eyes and you will be fully compensated with knowledge". Naruto smirked but continued to watch the herd; it took a while for them to move past then.

Suddenly Sokol shot up into the air, screeching at the top of his lungs, as two other screeching birds came after him. Naruto was startled "what are they doing!" Gomeg shrugged "from the sounds of things, maybe trying to kill him who knows".

Naruto stared at Gomeg "well can't we do something?" Gomeg scoffed "sure be quiet so I can concentrate on growing wings, then I will fly up and help him out". Naruto glared at the badger.

Well that is it so far, hope you enjoyed, (the stuff about the caribou I remember vaguly from a discovery channel thing, if you know more about artic or alasken wilderness please om me with info.)

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