AN: Another chapter, yay! Now here we have Naruto's first taste of combat, and he doesn't come out of it particularly well. He has ideas about how to make things work, he's fairly physically fit too, but he's also a short six year old child, with no experience of bloodshed or even proper spars. So while he accomplishes his task, he doesn't come out of it unscathed either. I hope the 'fight' scenes were written well enough, and that you guys enjoy the chapter.
Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord
Chapter 8 – A Test
Eiko led Naruto to where the last attack happened, and it was immediately obvious that it was the right place when they got there. Broken branches, squashed grass, dents in trees, and even some blood, though not as much as Naruto had expected. It was clear a struggle had occurred there, and Eiko provided some additional information.
"Nanako was a middle-class youkai, if only just." She said. "These bastards are getting bolder if they're going after those that are even that much more powerful than themselves, and as you can clearly see, the fight wasn't quite as easy as they were expecting it to be."
"It'll also be their last kill." Naruto told Eiko. "Youkai don't actually need to eat, especially not each other, and that they choose to do so… it sickens me."
"Then stop them." Eiko's eyes and voice hardened. "Kill them. Crush them. Destroy them! Nanako was my friend, and to see this… I wish I was more powerful, so I could utterly annihilate them by myself." She spat.
"I will." Naruto reassured Eiko.
"Make sure that you do, human." She growled, before turning her back on him and leaving. When she was almost out of hearing range, Naruto thought he could hear muffled sobs coming from the youkai.
He ignored it for now though, he had a task to do.
Examining the scene of the attack, and using what tracking knowledge he had from living in the forest for over a year, Naruto managed to work out a few things that weren't immediately obvious. First off, there'd been some sort of trap set on the ground, probably a snare.
Climbing the trees, Naruto found several small scuff marks on the branches, which suggested that the youkai had waited until their target had been caught in the trap and then attacked them, a rather sensible idea all told. Still, there weren't enough scuff marks there to make Naruto think that all of the attacking youkai had hidden in the trees.
He found more evidence of hiding places at ground level though, so he now knew that some of them had hidden there as well, and he began to construct a mental image of what had happened.
Nanako had wandered along, either following a route she usually took or just meandering around, and had set off the trap when she was caught in a snare. The youkai hidden in the trees were probably the first to attack her, and once they'd done their bit, the ones hidden at ground level probably rushed in and started their assault as well.
Disorientated, Nanako fought back, and despite being bound, managed to strike some of her attackers hard enough to knock them into trees and leave sizeable dents behind. Being at least partially bound, and likely concussed and bruised, she had then been overwhelmed by numbers. This was aided along by being bled out a bit, probably with claws judging by the blood splatter.
Straightening up, Naruto looked around, trying to see if he could see which way they'd taken their victim. It was possible that Nanako was still alive, and that they hadn't eaten her yet, but the possibility was still rather slim. However, the sooner he found them, the likelier it was that she would still be alive.
Unfortunately, Naruto wasn't really a very skilled tracker, or at least not good enough to hunt down youkai. Most of the rabbits and squirrels he'd killed had been caught in traps, and he'd only rarely caught sight of wolf tracks in the woods. It was at times like this that Naruto wished Hinoe had taught him how to change his shiki into birds or other animals, because they at least could have tracked by scent. Unfortunately, he wasn't skilled enough to do that yet, and he was stuck with vaguely humanoid shikigami for now.
Still, Naruto was adaptable if nothing else, and he could make do with what he had on him. He brought out a pack of shikigami talismans and activated them. He then sent the twelve shiki off around the area to look for anything that was out of place.
He joined them in doing so. Aside from it being more practical to have an extra person looking, Naruto believed that he shouldn't give orders that he wouldn't be willing to follow through with himself, even if he was only commanding shiki. The sole exception to this was suicide techniques, if he ever learned any, and that was something he would allow his shikigami to do in his place.
As he was looking around, Naruto heard a strange grunting growl. Looking around for where it came from, he quickly pinpointed the direction and headed off. He'd recognised the sound after all, it was the sort of noise his shikigami made, as they couldn't talk properly.
Indeed, when Naruto got there, he found that one of his shikigami had found some flecks of blood on some leaves. It wasn't much, and only really stood out because of the contrasting colours, but it was something. As the other shiki, attracted by the sound the first had made, gathered around, Naruto looked for the direction the initial attack had been in and mentally drew a line between the two places.
"Stay behind me, and tell me if you see something out of place that I miss." Naruto instructed his shikigami, as he began to follow the direction the blood flecks were in. He went slowly, so as not to miss anything, as there was precious little to follow as it was.
Thankfully however, while not the most skilled tracker ever, he was observant and alert enough to pick up on what was there. A scuff mark on a branch they'd walked over, a slight depression in softer ground, all of it added up to make a trail for Naruto to follow. None of it was as simple as following a set of footprints, but it was enough for Naruto to follow. He was thankful that youkai didn't hop through the trees like ninja did, because that would make it really difficult for him to track them down.
xxxxx
While Naruto was tracking down a rogue group of youkai, Hinoe was getting a visit from someone she hadn't seen in a while.
"Tsuyukami?" Hinoe glanced at the shrine youkai. "Haven't seen you around recently, is there something you needed?"
"Yes, actually, I'm in need of your assistance." Tsuyukami nodded. "You see, since Naruto is now set on being a ninja, I've been looking around and seeing what sort of thing ninjas do. I was rather surprised when I found out they weren't too much stronger than a well-muscled civilian, like a labourer or blacksmith. However, I found that they were many degrees faster than a regular human."
"Oh?" Hinoe continued smoking her pipe. "I guess that makes sense, I suppose. It's useless being able to punch a hole clean through a tree if you can't even touch your opponent. Then again, they have their 'ninjutsu' and 'genjutsu' techniques to use as well."
"Exactly." Tsuyukami nodded. "With Naruto becoming a ninja, you can also be sure that some of us youkai will be there to help him along the way. However, as we are, most of us would be useless against anything more than a genin, from what I've seen, and only the larger youkai would be able to do much more than Naruto himself could, especially if what I've heard about you teaching him to make shikigami is true."
"Hmm, I see your point." Hinoe murmured. "The kappa, for sure, will want to help him, and I will not abandon my student either. Madara enjoys being bribed with sweet food, and you know that if he passes Misuzu's test then the horse will want to prove his own worth in return. Lord Riou is also fond of our little blonde human."
"That is why I've been trying to copy one of the ninja techniques I've seen a lot of them use." Tsuyukami told her. "Unfortunately, I've had rather little success."
"What technique are you trying to emulate?" Hinoe asked.
"The Shunshin." Tsuyukami replied. "It's a high speed movement technique that allows them to almost teleport a short distance. If we could manage to use something like that, then we would be much more able to assist Naruto in the future, when he's fighting enemies that he really would need help with."
"True." Hinoe mused. "We'd need to improve our reaction times as well. It's useless moving at such speeds if you can't also react fast enough to make use of it." She paused in thought. "Tell me, how have you been trying to copy this technique?"
"I thought that they likely focus their chakra throughout their body or into their legs to make it work, so I tried both methods." Tsuyukami explained. "Doing the former, I became a bit stronger and faster, but nowhere near as much as I'd hoped, and doing so quickly exhausted me. Trying the latter, all I managed to do was kick myself in the face and break my leg. Still, it worked as a proof of concept at least."
"You… kicked yourself in the face?" Hinoe asked with a raised eyebrow, before bursting out into peals of laughter.
"Yes, yes, laugh it up. I'm sure you've made a few mistakes when practising something you didn't understand." Tsuyukami took the laughter good-naturedly, well aware of the humour in what happened.
Hinoe shook her head, but there was still laughter dancing in her eyes. "Yeah, I've had some pretty bad messes myself. Thankfully though, all of mine happened when I was by myself, and no one saw me grow a pair of pink and fluffy wings, turn my skin blue with green polka dots, or turn my arm into a giant crab's claw."
"So, do you think you can work out how to make the technique work?" Tsuyukami asked.
"I'm not sure… though given enough time, I should be able to work something out." Hinoe replied. "It'd be easier if I knew how the humans do it, but it shouldn't be too complicated. Tell me, when the ninja use the technique, is there any blasts of wind or anything that you'd usually expect from something moving that fast?"
"No, just a cloud of smoke that seems to always happen when ninja use their jutsu." Tsuyukami told her.
"Then there's more to it than them simply moving quickly." Hinoe considered. "They have to account for air resistance, how they affect the surface their standing on, their own momentum, and the sudden stop they come to after the technique ends."
Hinoe contemplated all of these factors, and how complex jutsu really must be. The Shunshin for example, had to account for several things, one of the most important being actually stopping moving. If a regular human was moving that fast and suddenly stopped, then they would suffer internal organ trauma from the impact their body parts would make when they hit the ribcage.
Hinoe sighed. "I'll see what I can come up with, but don't expect any results any time soon."
"So you have at least one idea then?" Tsuyukami interpreted her statement.
"I do, but I'll have to experiment with it." Hinoe replied. "I'll start off with several different seals that I'll stick on some shikigami, and see which ones are more effective. After that, I'll have to narrow down how reiryoku is flowing through the shiki, and then I'll have to figure out a way to emulate that without relying on a seal. All told, it's a lot of work."
"I'm sure you'll manage." Tsuyukami smiled. "You're the only one of us that can really be called a scholar after all."
"Yeah, I'll manage." Hinoe rolled her eyes. "Now come here and take a seat. If I want to get this started I'll need to know what you have tried and what results you got."
"Sure." Tsuyukami agreed, taking a seat. "I'll tell you what I can."
xxxxx
Naruto believed he'd finally found where the group of rogue youkai were hiding out. What gave it away was the multiple trails that ended up there. From Naruto's limited knowledge, he came to the conclusion that they'd been there for a while now, and hadn't had as much success with their other traps as they had with Nanako. If they were going after isolated youkai, avoiding where they gathered in numbers, it kind of made sense that they wouldn't always get someone tripping their trap.
He had to be very careful now. While their traps were basic, if they were at all intelligent, then they would have set some up around their camp. On top of that, they might have guards or lookouts or something that might catch sight of him. Taking a deep breath, Naruto turned to the twelve shikigami currently with him.
"You lot stay here. If you see a signal, a fire dart fired into the air, I want you to rush the camp and attack. I'm going to set some more groups of shikigami around the camp and give them the same orders, okay?"
The closest shiki lowered its head in what might be considered a nod.
With that, Naruto left them there and went to do the same elsewhere with more shikigami. His hand strayed to his pocket, and he considered how many shiki he would need for this. He had twenty packs of shiki on him, and each pack contained twelve shiki.
He'd already used up one pack that he'd just left behind. Considering he wanted to have plenty of shiki to take with him to Iron Country, he had to be careful how many he used, as he could only make so many packs per day. He might regenerate slightly for some reason, but he couldn't just keep using his blood as ink all day long. Already he had a slight scar on his left palm, where he kept cutting himself to get the blood.
Well, in two weeks, he could make a few packs of shikigami, so using them now wasn't going to be too much trouble. It was better to overdo things than not do them enough. With that in mind, Naruto pulled three more packs of shiki out of his pocket, setting them up like he did the first group, and then kept one more in his hand as he climbed a tree.
Sneaking along a thick branch, and crawling from one tree to another, Naruto was able to get a good vantage point overlooking the rouge youkai camp, and what he saw made him freeze in place and turn pale as blood drained from his face.
He saw the rogue youkai gathered below, and there looked to be about two dozen of them. They were quite a bit taller than Naruto, though he was only six years old, and they had vicious looking claws on their hands and feet. The leader was obvious as well, he was even taller than the other youkai, and had really long arms. Dragging along the floor behind him was a large, heavy looking wooden mallet.
What caused Naruto's reaction though was something else he saw. Tied up at the edge of the camp were three youkai that weren't part of the group. He almost threw up when he saw one of the rogue youkai rip a chunk of flesh from the side of one of their prisoners and then shove it into its mouth, leaking blood all over the place.
He needed to do something. Now!
Pulling one more pack of shikigami out of his pocket, so he held one in each hand, Naruto also slipped his small, round shield off his back and onto his left forearm. With a raw-throated yell, Naruto jumped out of the tree he was in, activating the shikigami talismans as he did.
He crashed into one of the rogue youkai, slamming it into the ground just as two dozen shikigami made themselves known around him. Raising his right hand into the air, the one with the 'flame dart' glove on, he fired off the signal for his other shiki.
"Attack them, defend the prisoners!" Naruto yelled his instructions to his shikigami, already charging head first towards the hammer wielding youkai himself.
The youkai were all bigger than Naruto though, and they had a longer reach and greater strength. This resulted in Naruto having to duck under a hammer swing that came flying towards him, and when he attempted to shoulder barge the leader, it only stumbled back a few steps.
Drawing the club that Hinoe had etched seals into, Naruto took a swipe at the hammer youkai's knees, and this actually had an effect. The enchanted – for how else would he describe it? - club left a sizzling, scorch-like mark on the youkai's flesh. While not as much as he had hoped, it at least slowed the leader down, and would hopefully distract the other youkai as well.
There was a reason he'd gone after the leader. He was a better fighter than his shiki were, even if they were all stronger than he was, and even a bit faster as well. If he managed to take the leader down, it would also demoralise its followers, making it easier for his shiki to take them down.
The youkai he was fighting lashed out with a kick to Naruto's chest, and the young boy felt the wind be forced from his lungs. He could also swear he heard his ribcage creak as well, though thankfully he didn't break any bones.
Trying to recover as fast as he could, Naruto kept his eyes on the hammer youkai, putting his trust in his shikigami to watch his back. He could hear noise coming from the forest around them, so the rest of his shiki should be there in just a few moments.
Still struggling for breath, Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the hammer youkai swing its weapon at him. Knowing he couldn't get out of the way, he put his shield up and braced himself for the hit as much as he could.
CRUNCH!
Naruto let out a yell of pain as he felt the hammer hit his shield. It hadn't broken, probably thanks to what Hinoe had done to it, but that didn't stop the force being transmitted into his body, and more specifically his shoulder, which was more than likely broken now.
His left arm hung limply, every movement it made sending jolts of pain through Naruto's body, not at all helped by the weight of the shield.
Ignoring it to the best of his ability, Naruto charged forwards, jabbing the hammer youkai in the chest with his club. Channelling as much of his reiryoku through it as he could, Naruto's efforts were rewarded with a loud, pained shriek from his opponent who reeled back from the strike.
Taking a quick opportunity to look around to see how his shiki were doing, Naruto was pleased to see that several of the rogue youkai were down, literally beaten to death with clubs and staffs. He was also pleased to see a group of shikigami surrounding the three prisoners with their weapons facing outwards. He wasn't quite as happy to see how many of shiki he'd lost though, each rogue youkai it seemed had managed to take out two or three apiece before being taken down themselves.
Luckily, things seemed to be going Naruto's way for the most part. With each rogue youkai taken down, his shiki had fewer enemies to deal with and could gang up on them more easily, and his shiki did work together, which was what was making the difference here, as each rogue youkai was fighting as an individual.
Turning back to his own opponent, Naruto focused as best as he could. Ignoring the pain, he watched to see how his own attacks had affected his opponent. The hammer youkai was avoiding putting its weight on the leg Naruto had struck, and the mark on its chest looked bad, and seemed to be affecting its ability to breathe properly.
Charging forwards again, Naruto expected the hammer swing, and so stopped and jumped backwards. As the youkai tried to recover from over extending itself, Naruto approached again, dropping to the ground when it lashed out with a kick from its injured leg.
He wasn't able to get away unscathed though. A claw at the heel of the youkai's foot caught Naruto's head, easily drawing blood, and when the hammer youkai drew its foot back, it clawed Naruto's face with the talons at the front of its feet. However, Naruto was now in range himself and swung at the youkai's uninjured leg with his club, scoring a hit.
The youkai let out a pained yell as both of its legs gave way from underneath it, Naruto only just managing to avoid being squashed beneath it.
Taking advantage of his fallen opponent, Naruto ran up and started to smack the youkai over the head repeatedly with his club. He didn't stop until he felt it stop moving, and even then he kept on smacking it a few times just to make sure it was properly dead.
Looking around at the camp, Naruto saw the evidence of the fights between the other youkai and his shiki. He grimaced when he saw he was down to just fifteen shikigami, but comforted himself when he imagined how much worse it would have been had he not used shock tactics to disrupt them, and how much worse than even that it would have been had they been prepared for him themselves.
Still, losing fifty-seven shiki, on top of the injuries he'd sustained himself, only showed Naruto how weak he was compared to others, and just how far he had to go before he was anywhere near capable of looking after himself. Oh, speaking of taking care of himself…
Naruto put his club away and reached for a small first aid kit strapped to his lower back that he and Hinoe had put together for him. Drawing out several roles of bandages, he took one roll for himself to deal with his head injuries, and gave the others to the nearest shiki, telling it to take care of the injured prisoners, especially the one with a chunk missing from their side.
"Are you guys okay?" Naruto asked, hobbling over to the three of them, and noting that they all looked rather pale and tired.
"We will be now, thanks to you." One of them answered gruffly.
"No problem, but just to be sure, do you know if I got them all?" Naruto questioned them. "I don't want to leave any of them around to attack us from behind as we leave."
"I think you got them all." The gruff one replied. "I couldn't see too well with your shiki surrounding us, but I wouldn't worry much either way. If you took down the leader and most of the others, there won't be enough of them left to really do anything."
"That's good." Naruto sighed. "Now, I'm a bit confused by this, but why did they keep you all alive? I can understand them bringing you back to camp to eat, but not why they'd keep you around for much longer than that. No offence."
"None taken." The youkai shook his head. "Honestly, I can only guess why they kept us around. Maybe they knew of a way to make our flesh more potent when they ate it, or maybe they wanted to gorge themselves all at once. All I can say is that I'm glad they did so, otherwise I'd already be food."
"Right." Naruto pulled a small knife out and cut the bindings holding the prisoners. "Can you guys walk, or do you need my shiki to carry you?"
"I can walk, and I think she can." The male youkai said, indicating one of the other prisoners. "But I think our injured friend here's going to need some help getting around until she can recover."
"Right." Naruto nodded, looking around. He then gave his shiki instructions, telling them to gather materials together to make a stretcher. Thankfully, they were able to do so, using a large section of tree bark and several branches. The injured youkai was placed on this, with four shikigami carrying her.
The only male youkai there accepted the staff one of the shiki carrying her gave him, and walked beside Naruto as they made their way out of the rogue youkai camp, and back to parts of the forest Naruto was far more familiar with.
"I can't thank you enough for saving us back there, kid." He was saying. "I've never felt so bloody useless in all of my life, and when I thought my time was up, you just drop down in the middle of them all and save us. I heard what you told your shikigami, you prioritised protecting us first."
"It's no problem." Naruto told him. "I didn't actually know you were there to start with, but when I saw you tied up, I couldn't ignore it. These youkai sicken me, I don't understand why they'd want to resort to cannibalism to get stronger. It's just… it doesn't make any sense to me."
The youkai snorted. "You'll find that there's some people out there who only care about themselves, no one else, and they'll trample all over anyone else to get what they want. Some of them even think what they're doing is right, and that the result is worth it, but..."
Naruto frowned. "You sound like you're talking about something else there."
"Maybe I am." The youkai said quietly. "Sorry, it's just… I made some mistakes centuries ago, and when I thought I was done for, it made me think. 'What if I'd done this differently?' or 'What if I'd just not done that?' Let's just say that when I get back home, I'm going to be doing a lot of apologising, and I'm going to turn my life around."
"O-kay then." Naruto honestly didn't know what he was rambling about.
The youkai just gave him a crooked smile and sighed. "Never mind, kid, just something that's on my mind is all."
Naruto didn't say anything in reply, and they hurried along back to Riou's part of the forest.
xxxxx
Of course, once they were back, who was the first person Naruto ran into?
Benio of course, and Naruto was really confused for a moment about the look of fear in her eyes before she ran up and hugged him tightly. This actually put pressure on Naruto's left arm, reminding him that it was still dangling loosely at his side, and the hiss of pain he let out made Benio let him go and start going over his injuries.
"Benio, I'm okay, really I am." Naruto insisted. "I just got some scratches on my head, and… well, my arm will get better! Hinoe will know how to heal it faster than it normally would, so I'll be fine. You can stop treating me like a baby, you know!"
Benio scoffed. "I let you wander out into that forest looking fresh as a daisy. You wander back with a bandage wrapped round your head, your arm hanging useless at your side, and you're covered in blood. Oh, I can see exactly how 'fine' you are, brat!"
"Then don't shake me about like that!" Naruto retorted.
"Oh, you'll live, don't get worked up about that!" Benio shot right back. "You know what might kill you though? Going up against a bunch of youkai without anyone there to watch your back!"
"I had my shiki with me, I wouldn't have been able to do this without them." Naruto replied.
"Oh, yes, your shiki!" Benio yelled. "Which you only learned how to make just how recently? Yes, let's rely on a technique you're not very good at yet, how could that ever fail?"
"I'm alive, okay?" Naruto's eyes scrunched up as he tried to stop the tears.
"I know you are, brat, but how close did you come to dying?" Benio wrapped Naruto up in another tight hug.
The youkai that were watching this, mostly drawn by their yelling, felt rather awkward as the two stopped shouting at each other, and instead hugged each other close while crying. Most of them, deciding that they really shouldn't be there, disappeared off to tell Misuzu that the human had come back, successful apparently, and with injured youkai with him too.
Some of the rest guided the shiki carrying the injured youkai away so she could get some medical attention from someone that was able to help her heal and recover. This still left a fair number still watching Benio and Naruto cuddling together, tears leaking from both of their eyes.
They remained like this for quite some time, long enough that it began to get dark and night started to set in. It was also like this that Hinoe came across them, being directed there by some of the youkai who'd seen them once she realised that Naruto hadn't come back for the night to sleep.
Of course, aside from how close the two looked, one of the first things Hinoe noticed was Naruto's injuries.
Oh boy, would Misuzu get an earful when Hinoe next saw him.