Immortal Phoenix

Author: The Phoenix is Immortal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I making any profit from this work. I do own my character used in this story.

Chapter 2: Such Strange Creatures

I saw the source of the disturbance. And the humans. Were they humans? They looked a lot like the drawings on the scroll that I had read. It was a little hard to tell. They would not stay still for me to confirm. I could not, having never seen any before, differentiate between a male and a female human, so for now, I would assume that both the humans were male. Humans were foreign to me. I had never interacted with any of their kind. They had two legs that were used to support themselves on and yet also had two more limbs. Arms I think. Attached to those were hands…if I remembered correctly. One of the humans (at least I am sure it was a human) was holding in his hands a strange black triangular object that had a point. A weapon of some kind? And he seemed to be attacking the other human.

On the attacking human's body was …clothing I think it was called. I knew about that. He wore simple black pants and a shirt that had a vest over it. On his thigh he had several bags and pouches. I wondered what they contained. As for what I thought of the clothing, well, clothing…was a strange concept to me. I had never needed it. I instead wore my bright scarlet and gold feathers…and that I did not need to take on and off. I couldn't either. I did need to replace old feathers though.

The other human looked different. That human did not have a face; it seemed to be covered by something that was white and looked like porcelain. A mask, I think it was. It looked like a creature of some sort. Why did he wear a mask? He also had on arm guards and chest armor in addition to dark pants. There was a long almost rectangular object on his back. I had no clue what that could be.

These two humans were the ones that caused that strange metal against metal sound that I was curious about. The sound was not natural after all.

The masked human was also attacking the other unmasked human. I wondered why they were attacking each other. Humans, it appeared, did not get along well with each other.

I was not that close to those humans. I was quite a distance away, far enough to not be seen by human eyes…at least according to what little I know of humans. I could see them though, being perched at a good location, where not too many branches obscured my view. I decided to stay and watch these humans fight each other…or whatever they were doing. I wanted to see what these humans were capable of. They seemed interesting so far.

Then, a little to my surprise, the masked one spoke. "You are under arrest for attempting to steal the scroll detailing the Hiraishin!"

Hiraishin…what is that I wondered. Maybe some type or kind of food? Was it edible? A scroll detailed it…so it could be a recipe. Whatever it is, it must be valuable for someone to try and steal it. So if it is food, it must be good.

Wait … I understood the human. One of the languages used in Makai must have had its base in this world. I was greatly relieved to know that. I would not have to dedicate any time to learning the language (or even worse, languages) that these humans spoke. Hopefully, they do not speak more than one language in this area.

So it was confirmed, I could speak to the humans. Well, I do not think I could talk to these humans in front of me. They seemed too busy arguing and fighting each other.

Then the other human opened his mouth. "As if you could even catch me," the unmasked one said, throwing the black pointed object at the masked one. He had a funny look on his face. It seemed condescending, and it was directed towards the masked human. A sneer maybe? It was difficult to identify the facial expressions on human faces because I was inexperienced with their kind.

The other dodged the black object. Then both of the humans exploded into motion. Almost faster than my eyes could see, they had started a quick series of physical attacks. The masked one launched into barrage of punches and kicks. Just as quickly, unmasked human dodge them and then did a series of backward hand flips, quickly distancing himself from the masked one. Then his hands blurred into a chain of strange signs that involved both hands. "Fire style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!," yelled the one who had just made the hand motions as a stream of fire shot from his opened mouth.

The masked one, more quickly than I thought possible for humans, ran out of the way of the overheated stream. Masked one than pulled out one of the black pointed objects, which by now I had realized were some sort of throwing knives. This one, though, had a paper attached to the end. He threw the knife, and even though the other person had dodge it, it hit the tree behind and the paper exploded.

I was astounded. I did not know that humans could breathe fire. Nowhere in my information was that stated. I also did not know that paper could potentially explode. I made a mental note to avoid paper.

The masked one threw himself at the other one, extending a leg in order to kick the other one. Unmasked one caught the extended limb and tried to throw the person attached to it into the nearest tree. While he tried to throw the masked one though, the masked one seemed to disappear. Unmasked human was now holding a log. The unmasked human quickly turned, blocking an attack from the other human. Then masked one stated, after jumping back and making a quick succession of those strange hand signs, "Temporary Paralysis Jutsu." At this, the unmasked human stopped all movement, freezing. Somehow, the masked one had paralyzed the other human. I guessed that it was the…jutsu he just used.

The masked one tied up and then picked up the unmasked one and slung the person over his shoulder. Then he jumped onto a tree and started to jump from tree branch to tree branch, heading in one direction.

I decided to follow. Who knows? He could lead me to a place full of more humans. The humans were fascinating. I did not know that they had those abilities. The ability to breathe fire, switch themselves with logs, and paralyze others. They could have more too. I kept a good distance from the human, far out of his sight range. I could see him, but he would not be able to see me.

He led me to a walled…village, I think it would be called. The…village was quite large. It was also right in the middle of the forest. So people did live in the forest. He entered the gates, with the other human still slung over his shoulder. The gates were guarded by two other humans, and after the two guards had checked something that he had given them, he entered.

I did not follow. If the guards needed to check something, like identification, I would not have it. I had to decide what to do from this point. After some thought, I decided to shrink myself even further. The birds here were really tiny. If I was too escape notice, I would have to be their size. I could see some sparrows fly over the wall, I would do the same.

I shrunk myself even more. Now I was the size of a sparrow. A sparrow. Can you imagine it? A phoenix the size of a sparrow? At least nobody I knew was here to see this. Otherwise...I would never hear the end of this.

I flew over the wall and landed on the ground. It was…really simple. Nobody was on the lookout for small little birds. Once inside, I could see many structure and tall buildings. It was a little cramped, with buildings everywhere. It would be easy to get lost, I think. I was too fascinated with the architecture to notice the humans in the vilage. I could also see, over the village, a mountain with 4 faces carved into it. Why was that? Faces belong on humans…right? Not mountains… I thought…maybe they were trying to give the mountain a personality? Or personalities?

So entranced was I that I did not notice a hand reach out and grab me. I let out a shriek and twisted my head around, causing my eyes to meet cerulean ones. Blond hair and blue eyes…what manner of human had caught me?

Author's Note: So…guess who caught him. I think it is pretty obvious. For clarification, someone wanted to catch him because he is a bird, and a colorful one at that. Also, Naruto will be a kid in this work.