Kishimoto owns Naruto

Opening theme: Giniro no Sora(3rd opening of Gintama)

Chapter 10: Maroga

Straining, Naruto slowly opened his eyes. Getting up, Naruto looked around, taking in his surroundings.

"What…What happened?" Naruto murmured.

-Bored with its captive, Ozaru flung Naruto into another direction-

"Oh yeah… that monkey threw me here…" Naruto muttered, trying to get his bearings. Straightening, Naruto tightened his headband. "Well, I'm still alive, I can still do this! Let's go!"

Naruto then realized that he was alone.

Oh… That's right. That stupid ape got rid of the others… I hope they're okay.

Naruto then faced a dilemma. Either he could continue searching for his mother, or he could search for his teammates. Normally, a person would be forced to chose one option out of the two, but Naruto's specialty made choosing both possible.

Let's see, Naruto thought, looking around, I could make a hundred clones and search the whole island, but I need to conserve what I've got in case I run into another monster, so… Naruto began to check each direction. "East, west, north, south…" He muttered, "Northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest… I need seven extra mes." He decided, making the hand signs.

Shadow-Clone Technique!

There were several explosions of smoke, and when the dust cleared, there were seven extra Narutos.

"Okay, men!" Naruto ordered, "I'm going east to find mom! Each of you go in a different direction and look for everyone!"

"Right!" The clones replied, and zipped off. Nodding, Naruto went off as well.

DATTEBAYO

Elsewhere, in a cave by a burning fire, Inari and Oda ate some cooked monster meat. Across from them, on the other side of the campfire, their host viciously gnawed at her own roasted steak ala' monster. The boy and sailor eyed her cautiously.

The person was a woman, wearing worn-out, outdated clothing. She wore a tattered sash around her hair, preventing them from seeing her hair color. She also had very mean eyes.

"Um…" Inari began to say, "Thanks for saving us."

The woman grunted.

"So…" Oda made his try at conversation. "How long have ya been here?"

The woman stopped eating. After a minute, she said, "Too long." And went back to devouring her meat.

"Uh, wouldn't you like to leave?" Inari asked cautiously. He remembered what his grandfather had said about Kaiju Island.

"Back when I was a brat, there was a place used a banishing point for the most dangerous super-criminals; guys so evil and dangerous that death alone wasn't a fitting punishment for them. These villains were exiled on a remote island to the south-west, rumored to be covered in the most vicious creatures that nature could come up with. Things too horrible to be called mere animals."

The woman gave Inari a cold stare. "No." She said firmly.

"Why not?" Inari cried incredulously. "If it's because you were banished her, Bro won't mind! He's a super cool ninja from the Leaf Village-!"

That was as far as Inari got before a stripped-clean bone sailed past him, crashing against the cave wall.

"I" She snarled, "hate Leaf Ninja!" Replacing the coldness in her eyes, her entire face was lighted up with a terrible heat. "Those filthy, worthless, sons of B &$s stuck on this god-forsaken island and killed my son!"

Inari and Oda stared as she inexplicitly burst into tears.

"My son!" She wailed. "My soooooon!"

As she sobbed, Oda took hold of Inari's arm and backed out of the cave.

"Well… Sorry t'hear that." Oda said, then whispered to Inari, "Let's beat it. She's busy."

As they left the cave, Inari took one look back at the woman. She was now curled up in a ball, shedding tears at high speed.

Inari looked away sadly, understanding her completely.

DATTEBAYO

Meanwhile, with Team Shika-Lee, they were still trying to avoid being caught by Octogon's tentacles. While Lee used his fast reflexes and superhuman speed to stay out of its reach, Shikamaru used his shadow-manipulations to shield himself from the tentacles. All the while, the lazy, complaining genius was busy trying to figure out a plan for neutralizing the monster octopus.

That thing doesn't seem to move, relying on its tentacles. Shikamaru thought, creating another shadow-tendril to divert another incoming tentacle. So all we need to do is take those tentacles out of action. But there's the matter of leaving the cave…I didn't see any exits, so that thing must have its own way of entering…!

Shikamaru was cut off from his thoughts when Lee's weights landed at his feet.

"Hold those for me!" Lee yelled. No longer being slowed down by his leg weights, Lee began to move at even higher speed, so much so that the tentacles couldn't keep up. Before Shikamaru could figure out what had happened, the tentacles had become tangled up in themselves.

"How do you like that!?" Lee asked, landing besides him. Shikamaru blinked.

"Okay…that works… I guess." Shikamaru said, leaning back. It's simple to the point of stupidity, but I guess if it works- Shikamaru suddenly fell back. The 'wall' he was leaning against was actually an exit to another tunnel, covered by a type of 'hanging moss'.

Hanging Moss; a type of fungus that hangs beneath the surfaces of stone

"Excellent, Shikamaru!" Lee gave him a thumbs-up. "I knew you would find the way out!"

DATTEBAYO

As Naruto bounded through the island's landscape, he suddenly felt the ground begin to shake.

Now what? Naruto thought. Then, a massive wolf bounded out from behind some bushes! But this was no ordinary-looking wolf. In addition to its size, it also had more teeth than a shark, a wild mane, very much like a lion's, and it's fur color was a variety of reds. It howled, and lunged at Naruto.

Evil Wolf Demon: Maroga

"Jeez!" Naruto yelled, diving to the side, "Doesn't this place have any normal animals!?"

As Maroga landed, it spun on its paws and made another lunge at Naruto. Naruto quickly created a shadow-clone that pulled him out of Maroga's path. Landing on the ground, Naruto and Maroga faced each other.

"So, ya wanna fight, huh?" Naruto asked the monster, who growled in response. "Well, you got lousy timing. I'm in a very bad mood!"

DATTEBAYO

Meanwhile, on their little island, Team Saku-Hina prepared for a mad dash. Sakura was healed now, so all they needed to do was move.

"We've only got one shot at this!" Sakura declared, "You ready?"

Hinata nodded. "Ready!"