Here is renewed and fixed version of chapter 2, not much has changed but I hope you like it just as well, Thank you.
Legand: Talking
'Thinking'
*Inner Sakura*
:: Pokemon Talking, and to other Pokemon :: (I thank Mollimon for the inspiration.)
:: Pokemon Thinking, and Pchyic Pokemon talking in the human mind. ::
~*Flashback*~
Chapter 2
The North Wind
A sky of blue and small clusters of white form above the forest canopy, songs of birds and insects fill the air of a beautiful mid morning day. An unpaved road cut through the forest as the only sign of human involvement for travelers to walk through, but the travelers we seek are not on this path but within the leaves of the trees parallel to it. Four figures jump, glide, and hop at a moderate pace along the branches for three of them were still grasping the art of it, while the fourth and tallest figure expertly glided through the leaves.
He was of a man in his late twenties, a lean strong build, gravity defying gray-white hair stood on his head, and a single solitary dark eye observed his surroundings. The attire he wore was that of his occupation and status: darkened blue jumpsuit pants and long sleeve shirt, a bandage fastening carrying pouch on his right thigh, a green flask vest jacket symbolized him as the Jonin instructor of his Genin team, fingerless black gloves on his hands, and toe and heel tipped shinobi sandals graced his feet. His face was never shown for he wore his recognizable half face mask on, from the top of his nose to his neck, and his hitai-ate of the swirled leaf of his village hidden in the leaves, Konoha, which covers his left eye that identifies him as, Kakashi Hatake.
Kakashi slowed his pace to have his team catch up to him. He had wanted them to continue exercising on their new abilities of tree walking after they had finished that…interesting mission to Wave Country. They each came behind him at their own pace through the branches, carrying their packs on their backs, consisting of two 12 year old boys and one girl.
Sakura Haruno was ahead, showing her near mastery of the exercise. She had a lean yet able feminine body, her face was fair with emerald green eyes and had a crown of long pink hair tied with her hitai-ate as a head band. Her attire had a red shirt that divided down into flaps from her waist to her front and back; a white band circle on the bottom part of the front flap. She wore blue shorts a pouch on her right leg, and blue shinobi sandals. Kakashi could see that she was breathing hard, trying to concentrate her chakra from her feet to the trees. 'She has incredible control, as most kinoichi do, but she needs to build up on her stamina,' he thought. 'Maybe an at home strength training routine could help her.'
Sakura's former lead pace slowed more as one of her teammates came up from behind to take the lead with a superior flare, nothing short from the rookie of his class year. She, despite losing her lead and being a little winded, sighed in awe at her crush and idol, Sasuke Uchiha.
Sasuke was the last of his clan, but he had all the traits of the Uchiha. Lean pale skinned body, raven colored hair that spiked up on the back of his head and piercing black eyes that hid the bloodline trait of his family that he released on their mission. His hitai-ate was tied around his forehead. He wore a high collared dark blue short sleeve shirt, beige-white shorts, black shinobi sandals and white arm warmers on his fore arms. Kakashi watched him more closely, after the incident in Wave he had to make sure the boy's nerves were in working order. So far Sasuke was pacing himself well, even going faster leaving Sakura behind in a more winded state.
Kakashi sweatdropped and sighed at that. 'Maybe I should teach Sasuke more on humility, cause chivalry is out.'
Rustling of leaves and grunts directed his gaze from his two students, then smiled behind his mask as he watched his third, but most surprising student jump from branch to branch not too far behind.
A crown of sun-yellow blonde spiked hair individualized Naruto Uzumaki from others, his blue eyes, whisker marked cheeks and his hitai-ate focused on the next tree to get his bearings. His tanned skinned body maneuvered around within his trademark orange jacket, with a white color and blue accents on his shoulders and orange pants, and blue shinobi sandals. His pouch clung on his right thigh and a yarn swirled patch on his left shoulder. Despite trailing last Naruto was getting more nimble and surprising quick. 'He's not a master now, but he's making good progress. So maybe, when I have time I could help him with his taijutsu, he needs it,' thought Kakashi.
Now when he first met his team, his first impressions were predictable with each one: the brooding avenging top rookie, the obsessive fan girl, and the prankster dead last. He almost didn't want to pass them, but pressure from the village council demanded him to take them to help the Uchiha, to them the other two were extra baggage. He would teach Sasuke but he'll do what he can to help them altogether. However, after their last mission, some his perspective of them had changed: Sasuke had activated his Sharingon and was willing to learn more, Sakura had gotten more control of her emotions in a fight and mental smarts to understand genjutsu, and Naruto…surprised him the most. The boy was able to still stand and fight against Gato's thugs after fighting a high level chunin with a bloodline limit. Kakashi had to admit that he underestimated his team and was looking forward to help them expand their abilities and power; he'll have to re-review their files more, in case of more surprises.
"Sensei…" a semi-breathless voice drove Kakashi from his thoughts.
He looked to see Sakura trying to come up to him until he stopped for her to catch up. She was heavily panting and had her canteen out, holding upside down and shaking it.
"Kakashi-sensei, I'm out of water," she said showing her canteen to him. He sighed and called for the boys to stop.
"Sorry Sakura, I only have half a canteen left," he told her.
Naruto, who had come up from behind, stood next to Sakura and produced his canteen from his pack. "So do I," he said, then looked to Sakura and partly held out his canteen to her with a fox-like smile. "But you can have some of mine, Sakura-chan."
The girl sighed, then looked up to see Sasuke come from the lead to join him. She smiled and looked at him hopefully, not noticing Naruto's disappointed look.
"Sasuke-kun, do you have any water?"
The raven haired boy 'hn'ed, took out his canteen then shook it, frowned, then looked back at them. "I'm out too."
Sakura sighed again, Naruto pouted irritably while Kakashi shook his head. 'I really need to work on their team dynamics still.' He sighed then addressed them. "Alright it's still a ways back home, so we'll stock up on water and take a break." They nodded to agree then he closed his eye to hear and smell around them. His blocked out his heartbeat, the wind in the trees, the birds singing, and other noises until he heard and smell running water. He reopened his eye then pointed across the road. "There's a small stream not too far from here. We'll fill up our canteens there."
GROOOWLLL!
"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed while frowning and throwing out her arm at the blonde. *He's a walking stomach! GROSS! Shannaro!*
"That wasn't me!" he exclaimed, avoiding her punch.
Sakura blinked at him for a moment then heard another growl and looked behind to see her crush. He had a small blush on his cheeks, but kept his indifferent look as he looked away.
"I'm out of rations too."
Sakura blushed at her mistake. "Oh." Then she turned to Naruto, who still had a pose for her next punch, just in case. "Sorry Naruto," she smiled at him while the blonde sighed in relief, and then smiled back.
"It's fine, Sakura-chan." He looked to Sasuke and smirked at him. "Hey teme, you you're supposed to keep track of your rations. What happened, did you pig out before we left? Heh!"
POW! "OW!"
"Don't bother Sasuke-kun!"
"Hn, dobe."
Kakashi just sighed then took out his own canteen. "Ma, ma that's enough. Sasuke why don't you and Sakura go to the stream and refill the canteens? Naruto and I will forage for some food. I'm out as well."
He handed the stoic raven and ecstatic fangirl the canteens and replied, "Hai." Then took them, and Naruto, however, pouted.
"Aw, why can't I go with Sakura-chan?"
Kakashi looked to him with his smiling eye. "Well I heard from a reliable source that you are an expert at foraging."
Naruto blushed modestly a bit and rubbed the back of his head. "Well yeah. Iruka sensei taught me." Iruka had taught him in case he needed food that was available to eat when ramen wasn't. He told him all of the edible food he could eat and those he should avoid.
"Who do you think told me?" replied his Cyclops-sensei. "It's better to forage with two pairs of eyes instead of one."
'Don't you mean 1½ pairs?' Naruto wanted to say but didn't to not waste time and just nodded reluctantly.
Looking to his team again Kakashi warned, "Remember to use the team call should any trouble come. Let's review that call."
All three whistled a small tune pattern then the two groups split.
Naruto walked ahead of Kakashi looking around for anything edible. 'Maybe I should get Sasuke some sour grapes to match his mood. Hehe,' thought the blonde. 'Wonder what sensei found yet.' He turned only to face fault when he saw his sensei reading that stupid little orange pervy book of his. Naruto stood up and growled, irritated at the Jonin.
"Hey! I thought the both of us were going to forage?"
Kakashi looked up from his book and eye-smiled at him. "Ever heard of multitasking Naruto? It's something that you may develop in the future."
"Like I'm going to forage while reading porn! Are you even looking around?" Naruto exclaimed while his eyebrow twitched.
"Aren't you? Because you didn't notice those chestnut trees over there." He pointed to his right, his eyes never leaving his book.
Confused Naruto looked to the direction his sensei pointed to a small grove of chestnut trees. The chestnuts themselves were mildly large, a rounded triangle shape of brown with a white color around the pointed top and clustered in small groups in the leaves. He glanced back to the Jonin, who was still reading his book, sweatdropped then sighed and walked to the grove. As he reached the base of one tree he concentrated his chakra to his feet and walked up the trunk. Kakashi looked up from his book to watch the blonde, noting the boy's improving technique until Naruto was able to reach the first branch and sat down on it.
"Make sure to check if they're in season."
"Hai!" Naruto called out then mumbled. "I know that already, believe it." He took the first chestnut from its cluster, cracked it open and put the meat in his mouth. "Yum, it's good!" Then he started packing more of the sweet nuts into his pack.
The Jonin chuckled as he watched him, then as he went back to his book when something caught his eye. He looked to his left with a puzzled expression. 'That's interesting.' He put his book back in his pouch, walked closer in front of it. 'This is something I've never seen before.' He called for Naruto, who's pack was near bursting. "Hey Naruto! Come take a look at this."
Naruto looked back down from his branch seat to see his teacher looking up at something. "Coming." He hitched his pack and jumped down. "What is it sensei?" he asked as he jogged up.
"Have you ever seen these before?"
Naruto looked to the tree they were facing and softly exclaimed, "Whoa!" The low dark beige tree was full of strange looking blue berries, but not like the blueberries he was used to seeing. These were much larger and had a harder outer skin. He plucked one and brought it up to his face to get a closer look. "It feels a little harder than other blueberries."
"I don't think it is one, certainly not grown on trees. This isn't in any of the acknowledged berries in Fire Country."
Naruto 'hmm'ed a bit then he noticed something else. "Hey there's more, but there different."
Not too far was a small grove of blue leaved trees that held strange bold dark red with spikes on them. Naruto walked up and plucked one from its branch taking a good look. "It looks like a tomato with spikes."
"Don't you mean 'Tamato'," Kakashi chuckled.
"Hey don't try that-" Naruto cut himself off then looked back at the berries in his hand. 'Tamato' clicked in his mind as he stared at the berry. 'Why does that sound familiar?' he shrugged his shoulders that maybe it was his imagination. It looked good so why not try it, it may taste like a tomato. He brought the spiked berry to his mouth, but Kakashi's hand gripped his wrist. He looked at his sensei.
"We don't know if it's poisonous or not." The Cyclops-sensei warned.
That made the blonde stretch his arm out away from himself and makes a face. "Egh." He looked back up to the Jonin. "Then what do we do about them?"
"We'll take some samples for the village researchers. They're probably a new species."
Kakashi watched Naruto nod and started put some berries into his back, then watched him walk around some bushes toward a far clearing. "Stay within earshot, Naruto."
"Hai," came the reply.
He chuckles when the blonde came out of sight but he could still feel his chakra. His ears perked when he heard rushing sounds in the trees behind him. His hand reached for his kunai pouch but stilled when he heard a familiar whistled tune and felt two chakra signatures, yet kept his hand there as Sakura and Sasuke dropped in front of him.
"What's my favorite book?"
"Besides that trash you read?" replied Sasuke irritably.
"You never told us," finished Sakura.
Easing his muscles Kakashi addressed the two. "So did you find the stream? That was a quick trip."
"We did but we can't drink from there," explained the pinkette. "When we got there the stream was contaminated. The water was brown and had debris flowing from up stream."
"Probably a storm happened up stream while we were gone," voiced Sasuke.
Kakashi thought of the situation; there wasn't another source of water from here to Konoha, and with the discovery of the new berry species could delay them and waste more time. Naruto was still in the area, from his chakra signature, so he could call him back when needed. He looked back to his other students.
"Alright, after Naruto gets back we'll go to the stream and filter what we can. Any questions?"
"Where is Naruto?"
"CRUUUUUUU!"
"Whoa!"
"...Ask and you shall receive," muttered Kakashi as he sweatdropped.
"That came from this way," called Sasuke as he lead them toward the clearing. "What did that dobe do now?"
They moved quickly through the brush to the brightened tree line to the clearing and came upon a scene with wide eyes and exclaims.
"What The!" Sharingon eyes widen.
"Gasp!" Hands covered her mouth.
"By Kami!" A single black eye widen with shock.
The clearing of soft short grass surrounded by trees had a small trench filled with water. Naruto had fallen back on his seat leaning back away and panting from being startled by the growling mass before him. The mass itself was a creature as big as a horse, but looked more like a slender dog. Its body color was a turquoise blue with white diamond spots on its sides, and white underbelly that reached up around its snarling muzzle and chin crest. Its darker teal tall head crest formed above in an oval with small horns on each side at the base. The mane of dark lavender flowed along it's back like a cape and its tail split into two ribbons that flowed parallel with its body. The red eyes above the snarling muzzle looked up at the new intruders but it didn't lunge or charge at them.
'But why?' wondered Kakashi. He looked to the fallen blonde if he had any physical injuries. Seeing none he asked, "Naruto, are you alright?"
Naruto slowly came up from his downed position then backing up to his team, aware that the creature was still growling and watching his every move yet still not charging.
"I'm fine sensei."
"What did you do Naruto?" Sakura chide him, finally out of her shock, then startled when the creature snarled loud.
"Cruu!"
"Keep your voices low," ordered Kakashi, staying Sasuke's hand from reaching his kunai pouch. "Any loud noises could set it off."
"It hasn't done that yet," stated Sasuke, keeping his eyes on the creature.
"We don't know what this thing is and /or what it is capable of. Naruto," he called to the blonde. "What happened?"
"I was just collecting those berries like you told me, sensei," explained Naruto lowly. He looked back at the creature worriedly. "I came into this clearing when I heard something growl behind me and this came in my view." He then pointed to the hindquarters of the creature. "It's caught in a wire trap too, by its back leg."
Kakashi looked at the leg and there the wire was tied to a rock near the water and the loop wire wrapped the hook of the leg, tightening with the creature's movement, making it cut into the flesh. He could see streams of blood from the cut. 'That would explain why it didn't charge at us. A hunter must have left it for another animal.' He looked up to the creature when its growls lowered. 'This still could be dangerous.'
An injured animal is one thing, but an unknown injured animal would be disastrous.
"The poor thing," whispered Sakura. She looked up to her sensei. "What can we do sensei? We can't just leave it here."
"Do you have the first aid kit?"
"No I gave it to you."
'Damn I left my pack back at the grove.' He gathered his genins closer stilling the trapped creature that laid down to lick its wound while it eyed them. "I need to get my pack so stay here and keep an eye on it and any other dangers but don't do anything until I get back. Understood?"
"Hai."
With that he set off leaving them with a very wary animal. Sakura kept her eyes and ears open on the surrounding area, while Naruto kept his eyes on the trapped creature, his mind was on overload for some reason the creature before him was oddly familiar. 'I know I saw something like this thing before.' He shook his head. 'Dammit Naruto use this head of yours. Remember!' He sighed then looked up to piercing red eyes. The creature, from its down position, stared back at him with its mane flowing behind its head crest had a regal look to it. Naruto stared back into its intelligent eyes, as if it was searching for something within him. He gasped at faint sensations within his stomach. He placed a hand there trying to make sense of the feeling. 'The seal's really feeling funny.' He saw the fierce eyes looked more gentle and thoughtful at the spot, almost as if…
'Does it know of the fox?'
After what felt like hours within seconds, a rustling sound turned the now fierce eyes to its right. Puzzled, Naruto followed its gaze to see his teammate and rival rummaging in his pack. Opening his pack more Sasuke reached in and pulled out a coil of rope from it. Curious, Naruto stood up.
"What are you doing, Sasuke?"
"We don't want that thing trashing around," he said tying a loop knot. "We'll tie it's head to keep it from moving."
Feeling insecure Naruto glanced at the creature; hearing it growl lowly again as it watched Sasuke. 'It's dangerous that way.' Sakura called out to the Uchiha, voicing Naruto's thoughts.
"Don't Sasuke-kun, it's dangerous and Kakashi-sensei said not to do anything."
"And I won't until Kakashi comes back. It'll hurt itself more if we don't secure it." 'And we'll have a leash to help pull it back to the village so it can be studied.' He thought, readying the rope, unaware of the now standing growling creature.
Also unaware of the growing tension Sakura just sighed and inwardly agreed with her crush. 'Sigh, Sasuke is so caring with animals.' *He's the definite sensitive type! Shannaro!*
However Naruto was still glancing at the creature nervous of what it will do, especially with that look it got.
"I don't know Sasuke, even with sensei's help it's dangerous and I'm pretty sure there's more to this." 'Something, I just know it.'
"Tsk, just stay there and out of the way, dobe."
"But I know there's something more to that thing than we realize."
"Naruto, stop being paranoid, Sasuke-kun knows what he's doing." *Don't you want to help the poor creature you heartless baka! Shannaro!*
"Hey, I'm just following my instincts and my instincts are telling me that there's more going on here. Believe it!"
"Your instincts are as acute as your brain, dumb!"
"Hey don't start something, teme!"
"Will you just-" Suddenly Sakura cut herself off when she felt a strong energy in the air. A growl turned her eyes to the creature and they widen in surprise at the sight. The creature's head had tilted back with its mouth wide open and concentrating light and power, forming a ball of energy within it. Her surprise turned to horror that it was aiming at…
"SASUKE-KUN! WATCH OUT!"
"CRUUUUUUU!"
Blue and black eyes looked up to see a beam of power and light heading straight for them. One stood in shock while the other…
"Oh Shi-!"
Kakashi had found his pack and started back toward his team when…
BOOM! CRASH!
The ground shook, trees trembles, and birds cried and scattered in to the sky. The vibration nearly knocked Kakashi from his feet but he had kept his balance. 'What in the world?' His mind raced as he got his bearings. He looked up to the sky and saw a column of dust and debris.
Right where he left his team.
'Can't those three give me one day without causing trouble.'
He picked up his pace back to the clearing.
Sakura knew she screamed when the beam of light the creature made blasted at the boys. She hadn't known she had covered her eyes though, until she moved her hands away to peek out at whatever graced her sight. Dust and dirt plumed from the ground into the air, she saw the creature was still standing, staring at where it attacked. She quickly looked at the spot the boys were and gasped, half in awe and half horrified, at the damage. A deep trench from the beam covered through the clearing and cut into the trees, leaving a clear trail of destroyed trees and crumbling boulders.
'But where are the guys?'
She franticly looked around then sighed in relief when she saw them on the other side of the trench, looking not worse for wear.
Naruto, seeing the beam, reacted quickly and tackled Sasuke out of the line of fire and both landed on the ground as the beam destroyed everything in its path. Both were covered in dust and minor scrapes, panting and staring in awe at the damage where they had stood. Naruto's pack was torn at the top from the beam and some on its contents fell to the ground. Sasuke had never let go of the rope because of the sudden the sudden attack, the tackle, and the damage.
After a moment of stunned silence Naruto was the first to come out of his shock. He sighed in relief that they were both okay, inwardly complaining about his ruined pack. He looked down at Sasuke to see if he was alright, then scowled and punched his shoulder, knocking the raven out of his stupor to reassess the situation. He cringed at the sudden yelling in his ear.
"This is exactly what I was talking about, Teme!"
Sasuke scowled back at him and tried to shove the extra weight off. "Just get off me, dobe!"
Roughly thrown on his seat Naruto looked back at him with a matching scowl. "Well 'xcuse me for saving your ass, you ungrateful bastard!"
"Your idiotic yelling set it off loser!"
"It was aiming at you, you dumbass, because you wanted to tie it up!"
"I knew what I was doing, urusatonkachi!"
"And look what that brought us, duck butt!"
"Thank goodness, they're okay," sighed Sakura. As long as they're arguing then they're fine.
"Everyone alright?"
They turned to the tree line behind them to see their sensei rush out with his kunai in hand and pack. When he reached the scene he took note of everything, his team and the damage path. 'Incredible, what power. Is it a bijuu, no this kind of power can't be a bijuu. Then what is it?' He looked to the creature snarling loudly at the boys as they made their way to their sensei and pinkette teammate.
"Didn't I say not to do anything?" his narrowed eye scolded the two boys, who he knew were the culprits.
"Blame teme here-"
"IT'S GOING AGAIN!"
They turned to it forming another energy attack but this one was more powerful. 'Probably since I showed up.' Sasuke took out his kunai and kept the rope in his hand. Sakura was wide eyed at feeling the power as Kakashi moved in front of her and raised his hitai-ate, revealing his Sharingon eye. Naruto just stared more at the creature and a flash of recognition came to him and seeing his team ready to counter the attack he quickly reacted the only way he could.
"No Wait! STOP! SUI-"
~*Flashback*~
The classroom was always quiet after hours, the joy of silence usually eases Iruka's mind from the chaos and ruckus of his students. He normally just finish his work and calm his headaches in the blissful silence. Yet, now it was semi-quiet for he had to do reading tutoring for one of his major headache cases, Naruto Uzumaki. The small blonde was sitting in his usual desk with Iruka sitting beside him, slowly pronouncing the words in his new/old book. Iruka was genuinely surprised that Naruto had progressed so quickly in only a month; it nearly took close to a year for others to reach where he was.
When the Hokage asked him to be Naruto's new teacher, he was anxious and apprehensive for he had his own mixed feeling for the Kyuubi container, since the fox had killed his parents. But the moment he and Naruto met, the boy peeking out fearfully from behind the Hokage's robe, a connection was formed between them as they found similar lonely kindred spirits. From then he did all he could to give Naruto a proper education of normal basics and shinobi guidelines like any child going into the ninja world.
Iruka smiled as Naruto finished his page and turned to the next one. The boy was ecstatic to start reading his book and Iruka had to admit the creatures were fun to read about, even though they don't exist. The page turned to a new creature picture and Naruto's eyes lit up and pointed at the picture.
"I like this one."
Iruka chuckled, 'He says that about almost every one.' He looked down at the picture. "Wow, it's a very exotic one."
"Believe it! Won't it be cool to have this as my partner, like Kiba Inuzuka when he gets his dog? Imagine it sitting next to me in the Hokage's office like a guard dog."
"I would but you're not Hokage yet."
"I can dream." Pout.
"Alright. Let's see if you can guess its name."
He pointed to the printed name under the picture and watched Naruto, as the blonde focused on it. He stifled a snort of laughter at Naruto's look of concentration: squinting his eyes at the page, scrunching his nose up, and setting his chin out. Then he started to sound out…
" 'Su', 'I'?" He looked to Iruka to see if he was right, but the scarred brunette shook his head 'no'.
"Remember your vowels, Naruto."
The blonde looked back again the smiled. "Oh, yeah it's one of those 'i's the turn into 'e's right?"
"Yep."
"Those are hard to get."
"You have time to practice. Now try it again."
Naruto sounded out the word along with his finger.
" 'Su', 'e', 'cune', 'Sui'-'cune'. Awesome it's called a…"
~*KAI!*~
"SUICUNE! STOP! SUICUNE!"
Silence.
That was all Kakashi heard when he stilled to watch Naruto suddenly move in front of them and scream for this 'Suicune' to stop its attack. He had heard Sakura scream for the blonde and Sasuke call to him to move but when the silence came everyone froze. The creature before them, with its attack still in its mouth, was staring back at Naruto as the boy had spread his arms out in front of him, staring back wide eyed and breathing deeply. A few intense moments passed before the creature's pall of power and light decreased in size and vanished. Its mouth closed and stared back at the blonde and waiting; its leg was bleeding more from the wire cutting deeper from its movement.
'It responded?' Kakashi mix matched eyes widened at the scene along with his other students. The creature had responded to the name in Naruto's pleading cry. Was it intelligent? Can it understand human language? What other powers does it have? Where did it come from? His eyes moved to the blonde as Naruto's shoulders eased. 'How does Naruto know of it?' He watched as Naruto moved to slow step ahead as spoke reassuring to the creature.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry we scared you."
"Naruto! Don't-" Sakura tried to stop him but Kakashi had the block her. She looked at him worriedly as he shook his head to her, then to Sasuke when the raven readied his kunai. They had to trust Naruto for this.
'Naruto just keeps surprising me every time.' Kakashi thought as he looked back on the exchange between Naruto and 'Suicune'.
"We only just want to help you," reassured Naruto as Suicune looked at him warily. "All of us do."
Suicune's piercing red eyes shifted to his left and growling lowly. Naruto glanced behind him to see Sasuke, his hand still had the robe.
"Sasuke," called Naruto softly to him. Sasuke's eyes moved to him. "Get rid of the rope." Naruto motioned his hand slightly.
Sasuke hesitated and gripped the rope tighter as he looked to the Jonin. Kakashi nodded his head to get rid of the rope, but the look in his eyes directed to him was evidence that Kakashi knew what he wanted to do with it. He hated to follow Naruto's order but if his sensei enforced it…He scoffed silently as he tossed the rope behind him into the bushes. Then he humbly raised his hands with his palms facing out to the creature to show he didn't wish to harm it.
"See, even Sasuke wanted to help you. Although he was being an idiot about it." Naruto ignored the two pairs of glares on his back. "But we all want to help you. We can get that wire off, but please just trust us for a little while."
No one moved as the 'Suicune' glanced at each of them; they felt the eyes look within them. Then it eased its body, snorted at them then sniffed the air a couple times before looking down to the ground; The team tensed at this action. Puzzled, Naruto followed its gaze to see some of the chestnuts and strange blue berries scattered on the ground. 'They must have fallen out of my pack when it got ripped in its attack.' He flinched when he saw Suicune's muzzle come down to try and get one of the berries but they were out of reach. It cried out when the wire around its leg tightened with its movement, cutting deeper into its flesh. 'It must have been here for a while, it should really be hungry.'
A hand on his shoulder stopped his thoughts and he looked back to the red eye of his sensei. 'That still gives the creeps.' He inwardly shuddered.
"Naruto," Kakashi whispered. "Can you distract it?" His gaze looked down to the berries. 'Its properly starvation, but this 'Suicune' knows what those berries really are. What could be the connection?'
Naruto looked to his sensei then down to the food items on the ground, his eyes widen when he got the idea. "Hai, sensei," he replied as he went to pick the food up. Slowly he reached for the blue berries and chestnuts, while Suicune slightly moved its head up to watch him. It growled low as Naruto tentatively picked up the one it was reaching for before Naruto rolled them closer to its muzzle.
It paused to glance at the food then looked up to Naruto, who nervously smiled back to reassure of intentions. After a moment of tense silence Suicune lowered its head to eat. Naruto sighed in relief then turned to his team to raise a thumb up then started rolling the berries and chestnuts to where Suicune's head turned away from its injured leg.
Kakashi nodded then turned to Sakura behind him. "Sakura, keep watch we don't want anyone or anything sneaking up on us." The pinkette hesitantly nodded, glanced at Naruto feeding the creature then went to the tree line. Kakashi looked to Sasuke, who went to find his rope and coil it up to put in his pack. "Sasuke, keep an eye on it and alert me if it moves aggressively."
At Sasuke's nod Kakashi placed his pack down and took out his first aid kit and small wire cutters. Getting up he slowly walked closer to the back region of the creature. He glanced to see it eating the nuts and berries Naruto rolled to it. The blonde looked at him and nodded to him to continue. The Jonin nodded back, took a deep breath, and then crouched down to the wire. Taking the cutters out he moved to sandwich the wire then cut it. He glanced at the crested head for changes, but it still ate the nuts then went back to his work. Slowly removing the wire from the cut flesh he put the cutters down then took out a damp cleaning towel and healing slave from the kit. Smoothly cleaning the blood off, he wiped it off the flinching leg.
"Kakashi!" came the whispered alert from the Uchiha.
Kakashi froze then slowly turned his head to meet with another piercing red eye. Tense he stared back, trying to keep calm. The 'Suicune' neither moved nor looked aggressive toward him, it was relaxed and still. He could barely see the worried work Naruto made from behind the creature's head and he could sense the nervous auras from his other two students. Yet, he eyes never left the others, his body relaxing to show he was helping. The 'Suicune' just stared back, more pointedly at his given Sharingon eye.
Kakashi had been intimidated by many stares in his life and career: the aftermath of his father's suicide, the meeting with his Jonin sensei, who soon became Hokage, the eyes of the youngest captain in ANBU from the Uchiha clan, the Kyuubi's, the council's, and Obito's half stare within his mirror. But this…
'What is this?' Kakashi thought franticly from sensations from the Sharingon eye that shuddered throughout his body. 'Obito's eye is resonating with it.' He shockingly looked back at the now half-lidded stare, as if it was saying, "You may continue." Then the 'Suicune' snorted and went back to eating the berries from a relieved blonde.
Kakashi silently let out a breath he didn't know he was holding then went back to his task. Finishing putting the salve on the wound he then quickly wrapped gaze around it. After securing it firmly he stood up and slowly walked backwards and motioned Naruto to follow him. Nodding the blonde left one last berry and chestnut he stood up as well and walked back with his sensei, leaving the 'Suicune' to finish eating and take a look at its released bandaged leg.
They watched as it lifted it leg up and down, adding pressure to it, for internal damages. Finding none its head rose to meet with theirs, its red eyes bore to them yet not as hostile. Then it raised his right front leg and lowered its head into an equine bow of gratitude and with an unexpected gust of a breeze from the north it ran quickly into the tree line on the other side of the clearing and vanished into the brush.
After a moment they all released a breath and Naruto softy sounded out what they all thought.
"Wow."
"That's probably the right word for it, Naruto," Kakashi sighed and lowered his hitai-ate then looked up to the sky and the suns position. 'Good, that didn't take too long.' "We'll head back to the road and find that stream. We still need water so by the time we filter it we might make it back home after night fall." His team nodded and went to pick up his pack and waited with Sasuke as Sakura helped Naruto fix up his pack and pick up his stuff.
The Jonin turned to Sasuke to see the raven-haired genin stare at the damage path of the 'Suicune's' attack. It was powerful, yes, to destroy so much in one blow, such power would be benefactual to Konoha; Kakashi knew this for he had the same thoughts with similar terms. Yet, this kind of power was unknown, unpredictable, and too untamable for them to bring to Konoha. Sasuke must have now thought this as the boy sighed and shook his head. Team 7 finally regrouped and restocked on food and samples of the berries and went their way back to the road.
What transpired before still lingered in the genins minds as they walked across the road to the other side with their sensei leading them. Sasuke walked with him and Sakura walked with Naruto; they talked in low tones.
"We should have tried and taken it back, with its power-"
"Don't Sasuke, even if we did it would've taken too much time and energy to haul it."
"We could've found out what it was with the researchers."
"Naruto seems to know." The masked sensei turned to the embarrassed blushing blonde with his eye smile. "Don't you?"
"How did you know, Naruto?" asked Sakura beside him.
Naruto smiled slightly and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "A book."
"A book?" she gave him an incredulous look. "Really?"
"Believe it, it was something Jiji gave me before I started at the academy, a long time ago."
"Jiji?"
"Oh yeah, I mean old man Hokage." That gave him whack to the head.
"Call him properly, baka!"
"He doesn't mind. Anyway, well one day he gave me this book to help me read and it was about these awesome animals that had these powers and Suicune was one of them. But…"
"But?"
"Well he and Iruka-sensei said it was made up—No wait, what was that word…Oh fiction! Yeah, fiction."
"What we saw back there sure wasn't fictional," voiced Sasuke thoughtfully.
'No kidding.' They all thought in unison, thinking back to the power and damage of it.
"Do you still have the book, Naruto?" asked Kakashi.
Naruto crossed his arms and gave a fox-like thoughtful look as he walked and answered. "Well, I haven't seen it in a long while, what with training, classes, pranks and…other things," he had a solemn look as he mumbled the last one. "I became too overwhelmed and spent less time with it. If I remember right it's probably still back in my apartment."
"Under a table leg, no doubt," scoffed Sasuke.
Naruto scowled up to him, irritated. "Hey! Even I know how to treat books with respect, Teme!" 'Besides the last time I did that Iruka-sensei took my ramen reward privileges away for a month. I don't want that to happen again, believe it.'
Kakashi calmed him down, "Maa, maa enough you two. Do you think you could find it again?"
"Yeah, once I get back."
"There it is," called Sakura, pointing ahead.
There on a rock and grass bed was a 3 ft wide stream flowing from a small waterfall not too far away, it was moderately fast flowing as it made its winding way through the trees. Yet, as Sakura and Sasuke had said the water was a milky brown with floating dark chunks of leaves, mud and branches that flowed from up stream. Naruto suddenly pinched his nose.
"Egh! It reeks!"
The pungent smell did grate the team, but Kakashi had no other choice.
"Sasuke, why don't you start a fire, we'll get the water ready," he said as he took out some tin cups from his pack.
"But it'll take hours to filter from this muck," whined Sakura.
He smiled back at her. "Then we better get started."
The genin sighed in unison. 'Aw man.'
SPLASH!
Naruto looked up at the sound and turned his head upstream. His eyes widen and he exclaimed.
"Hey Look!"
The rest of Team 7 looked up and turned to the direction Naruto pointed to and there on the waterfall, on the water itself, in all its splendor was Suicune. Its lavender mane flowed along it back, looking back at them, like looking at a deity from legend. From its position it looked down at them and the contaminated water with calculating eyes.
"What is it doing?" Sasuke asked as he reached for his kunai pouch with Kakashi's hand on his shoulder, staying it.
'It's standing on the water like it had chakra, yet I don't sense any chakra from it,' Kakashi thought as he watched it carefully. Suddenly he tensed when it started to raise its head to bay loud.
"CRUUUUUUU!"
They all watch in awe as its body started to shine a white glow with its cry. Then it jumped from the waterfall to gallop along the stream flow, it paws leaving the water glowing in its wake. Neither slowing nor stopping as it ran by them until it reached a distance away from them. When it did stop the power on his body decreased until vanishing and it turned its head to look back at the stunned humans.
For a moment they couldn't figure out what it had done until Sakura looked down at the stream and gasped at the sight.
"Gasp! The stream!"
The man and boys looked to the stream and were amazed that it had changed from a muddy and foul smelling stream to looking clean and free of odor and debris. Sasuke, taking a risk, walked down to the bank and scooped up some of the water in his hands to his lips. He sipped some of the water and looked back to Kakashi.
"It's pure," he said with surprise in his voice.
'Impossible!' thought the wide eyed Jonin. He knew no creature, not even a biju, can purify water, but this one had just ran across the stream and purified it. He looked back to it. 'Is it thanking us?'
Naruto just laughed excitedly and cheered. "Ha, ha that's so awesome!" He smiled wide and looked back up to Suicune and waved back to it. "Thank you!"
It looked back at the blonde with a more calculated look, Kakashi noted, and then raised its head to bay again.
"CRUUU!"
And again vanished into the trees.
The Jonin and Genins watch it go then Kakashi chuckled and shook his head. 'I guess some old virtues still exist in this mysterious world.' He looked back to his team.
"Alright thanks to… Suicune." He saw Naruto smile at him. "We will be home before dark."
On a high rock outcrop, Suicune looked down where it saw the humans fill their canteens and made their way back to the road and trail down to their village. It looked back to its bandage leg as a green power glowed on it and the bandage fell to reveal a healed leg, it cut wound gone. It nodded its head then looked back down to the fading figures.
::Well, what is your analysis?::
::…The boy is flawed:: Suicune acknowledged its companion. ::He lacks full skills of few things, he charges in and just goes with what he learns in a heated situation, and an exceptional amount of hidden potential that will take time to unveil. Yet, above all else…:: It looked to its companion and seemed to smile at it. ::He's perfect. His tenant now knows of our presence again. Is the catalyst ready for him?::
::Yes, he'll have it on the morrow.::
Suicune looked forward and up to the sky in a distant and thoughtful look. :: To think that after all this time and planning, our dream will come true.::
