Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and any reference to any other thing owned by someone else.
Claimer: The OCs are mine. If any are sue-ish, well…they're still my sues.
Warning: Characters may sometimes be OOC. You have been warned.
Lost
Chapter 4
The day before had been a lousy one, there was nothing to do. Even pushing his clones of the cliffs became lousy after the first fifty. Naruto then resorted to having his clones run around him while he threw rocks at them, moving target practice. When that got boring, he then had the clones attack him, which proved to be painful, seeing as he couldn't dodge that many clones, Tajuu Kage Bushin no Jutsu sucked when you were on the receiving end of the attacks. Afterwards he figured he would go look for his friends, unfortunately they were no where to be found, even during meal time his friends were no where to be found. The other people in the fortress paid him no mind, they just concentrated on their tasks for the day. None of which had anything to do with Naruto.
So, this new day, Naruto hoped that it would not be as dull as the previous day. Time for another adventure, with an army of one thousand twenty five clones, he had twenty five of the clones throw him and the rest over the side of the mountain so that he could go exploring in the jungle. There may have been a rule against jumping off of cliffs, but there was none about being thrown off of one. So down went one thousand and one Narutos.
As the last Naruto hit the ground, the army scanned their surroundings, after a while of scanning and finding no immediate danger, the clones split up into groups of one hundred, and randomly ran in a direction.
The direction in which all ten groups went, were not really all that random. Five of the groups took the left, and the other took the right. It was a massive split, five hundred travelling in one direction, the others in another direction. Eventually the two groups of five hundred would refine their split in number. Two groups would take to the tree tops, another group would seek out caves, another would dive into rivers and behind waterfalls, while the last groups would just keep running til they ran into something. Whatever that something may be.
Once the army of clones had left Naruto alone at the base of the cliff he created another thousand clones. These clones would begin construction on their creator's base of ground level operations. A fort or outpost of sorts, a headquarters away from the hustle and bustle of the fortress. They outpost would be fully equipped with all facilities needed for an army to survive. The clone army would divide themselves into groups of one hundred.
The first two groups of a hundred were given the task of gathering lumber. One group would be in charge of toppling trees, and the other would be incharge of transporting the lumber back to base.
The next two groups would be given the task of acquiring stone, they would need to survey the area at the base of the mountain for a place suitable for the creation of a quarry. One group would do the digging, while the other would be transport.
The next two groups would be incharge of seeking out some iron ore, and other metals. One group would again, do the digging, rather mining, the other would be the transporters.
Three of the remaining groups were given the task of keeping the other six groups safe from harm. Naruto pumped some more chakra into these clones before he allowed them to set off to complete their required tasks.
The group that remained with him, Naruto assigned them the task of doing the actual construction work. They would be the ones to set the foundation, and do the other things needed for the completion of his base of operations.
Due to having so much experience with creating Kage Bushins, Naruto was now able to create clones anywhere he wished, sort of. He could have a clone appear anywhere he wished as long as he knew precisely where it was. Thanks to this skill, Naruto created an army of another thousand clones at the top of the mountain a few meters away from the fortress. They had been preprogrammed with instructions to head for the fortress library and seek out and read about architecture, construction, and engineering. When they were done, they would disperse in groups of twenty five within intervals of five minutes. Then once the information had successfully integrated itself with the original Naruto's mind, he would then send out the knowledge to the clones that would need the knowledge via his chakra link with his clones.
Before sitting on a random rock to begin meditating, he created yet another army of one thousand clones, and instructed five hundred of them to follow the orders given by the group of construction clones. The other five hundred would be the security detail of the construction site.
The clones that were incharge of throwing clones and Naruto off of the cliff, poofed out of existence once their task had been completed.
The group that had found a cave in the right-direction of the jungle had assigned one of their number to be their captain. This clone captain split his unit into groups of ten, making it ten groups. He split the first group into two smaller groups, and had one group enter the cave, five minutes later he sent in the second group, five minutes later he sent in a second group of ten, and so on and so forth, until all the groups were walking in the cave exploring, as well as hoping not to encounter the things in the cave on and in the mountain.
The other group of clones that had gone exploring a cave had also assigned a captain, and had gone into their cave in the same manner as their right-directioned counterparts.
The first group encountered nothing until they entered a cavern with holes covering the walls. It looked like what the inside of a bee hive looked like. But unlike a bee hive there was no buzzing. Just lots and lots of silence.
The captain had all the clones regroup. Then he had fifty clones become the recon team, and had them travel the length and bredth of the cavern to see if there was anything of interest, as well as if there were any hidden hostiles. The remaining fifty, inlcluding the captain, would prepare their own little base of operations, by having twenty five of their number run out of the cave and gather some wood and leaves so that they could quickly construct a structure that they would use as their temporary base of operations.
The other group of cave explorers had also encountered a similar cave, but unlike its counterpart, this one actually had things buzzing in it. It was not an empty cavern that the clones had chanced upon, it was a golden orange cavern filled with giant bees. In the middle of the ceiling was a hole, in which light from the world outside shone into.
The hundred clones and their captain stealthily tried to move out of the cave, but due to the stumbling of one of the clones, the giant bee hive was alerted to their presence.
More and more bees were coming out of the holes in the walls and ceiling, more and more bees were flying in their direction.
Faced with such a situation, the captain thought of only one thing, and he voiced it to his men.
"Attack!" the captain shouted.
His men quickly started whipping out Jutsu upon Jutsu, killing bees left and right, but it seemed like the numbers of the bees never ended. When one died another two would take its place, whereas if a clone died none would take its place.
"Scatter! Go for the holes!" the captain screamed as he was swarmed by bees upon bees, "Just run!"
So the remaining clones pair up quick as they could and ran into the different nearby holes and just run for it. Hoping that wherever they would come out, would be either a safe place, or with friendlies.
Back at the construction site, Naruto was aroused from his meditation by the information being sent to him by the dying clones. The memories made him realize that his clones basically only had Jutsus to defend themselves, he needed more weapons. His katana could not be properly cloned, and each of his clones was armed with only one kunai. He needed to learn how to create weapons and armor of his own.
So he created another army of clones to storm the library, this time in search for the knowledge of smelting, blacksmithing, leatherworking, basically anything and everything that had to do with making weapons and armor.
Following this train of thought, Naruto created yet another army of clones, this time double the number of the last army, these ones to seek out knowledge about how to make clothes, furniture, art, and the like.
Little did he know that the clones he created created more clones, and soon the library was a literal sea of red, not blood, but clones. They were busier than a bee hive.
Some of the other fortress residents found the sight amazing, and sometimes quite helpful, a number of clones around gathering up information took breaks every now and then to aid some of the other library goers in their search for knowledge.
Naruto was able to make friends with some of the other smaller inhabitants of the fortress, like the dwarves, goblins, fairies, and gnomes.
After helping some toilet monsters out, some clones split their chakra stores even more in order to study plumbing, electrical work, and the like.
Some of the clones had already relayed knowledge to Naruto, these were the clones that had finished with studying the basics of the topics they were assigned. An aeons old library worth of knowledge and wisdom was being packed into one young man with the use of his information gathering clone army.
How so many clones and other being could fit into the library was solved when someone realised that it must be due to some weird rule Kyonshi had come up with.
In fact there really was such a rule in existence: 'If the library ever runs out of space, I'll kill myself and take all of you space whores with me'
In a corner of the library away from all the clones a lone figure was reading an ancient text about cooking recepies. He wore a long sleeved white shirt, and pink pants. His long hair was tied in a loose pony tail.
'Why am I not surprised that someone would try to fill up my library...' he thought to himself while memorizing an old recipe for oatmeal, 'Either he's testing my rules, or he wasn't thinking.'
Beside the reading man, sat a reading fox.
'That kid sure has zero logic. Not that it matters in this place' thought the fox as he too watched the clone army devour knowledge by the page.
Most of the paired up clones had already succumbed to nonexistence, there was only one pair left, they started to see a light at the end of the tunnel, due to the need to survive, and the want to get away from the bees they used even more chakra to get to the light as fast as possible.
As they finally reached the light one clone pushed the other while saying, "I'll hold 'em off, you warn the other!" The clones having noticed their bretheren in the cavern beyond.
While the lone clone distracted the bees, the other clone after righting himself made a mad dash towards the solid structure that the other clones had created. Once reaching them, he filled them in on what his group had found. As his tale came to a close the bees had finally gotten out of the tunnel they were in, the clone finally dispersing due to running out of chakra.
The clone that told the tale then jumped out of the structure and ran towards the advancing bee army.
"I'll hold 'em off while you guys prepare!" the clone shouted to the other clones.
The one hundred clones who were still running at full capacity, quickly brought out their crudely cloned katanas, and their kunai. Half of the clone army stayed outside their base, while the other half stayed within the walls of their base.
The outside clones started to move into the places where they would start their attack. The inside clones would provide Jutsu support for the clones outside. Not all attacking at the same time, half would rest, while the other would attack.
As the bee army had finally finished off the solo clone, they started to form ranks of their own. They started to appear more intelligent than normal bees. Their hive mind was directing them to act in this unified manner. They had learned not to attack just as they were. The sole clone proved a worthy opponent, therefore they would not underestimate its hundred other brothers.
The bees after gathering in the hundreds had finished forming their ranks, started to buzz even louder than before. Seconds began to tick by, and the buzzing just kept on getting louder.
The clones were starting to get unnerved by the buzzing of the bees, but they would stand their ground, fight, and avenge their fallen comrades.
From the hole in the ceiling above them a figure fell into the cavern, as it hit the ground between the two armies, all hell broke loose.
The bees charged the clones, stingers pointing forward.
The clones charged the bees, katanas and kunai gripped with vice like grips.
The figure that hit the ground between the two charging armies had only one thought in mind.
'I am so fucked' this being the last thought that went through its mind before it too joined the world of nonexistence. For the figure that fell into the hole was one of the clones of the group that went off running to who knows where.
The other members of the group of the clone that fell, peered into the hole, and witnessed the beginning of an epic battle.
"Looks like we found something to do" the captain of that group announced.
He then ordered his men to prepare to aid their brothers in battle. In groups of ten they dive bombed the bees with katanas drawn and rasengans spinning.
The bees stood no chance.
After a few more minutes of battling the clones won the battle. The bees had retreated.
But the clones knew, that they had yet to win the war. Those bees seemed smarter than the average insect.
A few more minutes passed. The clones were planning or thinking of what to do with the new situation. They didn't have the numbers to take out the rest of the hive. What were they to do. That giant bee hive was a treasure trove filled with honey.
The bees now aware of their existence would now also try to rid the world of the existence of the clones. It had now become a battle for survival.
But before they could continue with their planning they could hear sounds coming from some of the other holes in the walls. It sounded like running, feet thumping against the earth.
Then suddenly out of one of the hole came a clone, then two, then three, and so forth and so on. Then from the hole in the ceiling came more clones.
As the last clone made its presence known, a buzzing sound could be heard from above. A few seconds later, some of the clones below the hole witnessed several flights worth of giant bees pass above.
"We gotta head back to base. Looks like the bees are planning on hitting where the Boss is" one of the clone captains said.
The clones were in agreement, they would run as fast as they could back to base camp, and inform their creator of the bees, and what they believed the bees were planning.
Not all of clones had survived to reunite with the rest of the clone army, three of the groups had been cut down by the bees. Those winged overgrown insects were ruthless when they wanted to be. One group that took to the trees had encountered the bees, after a short battle which the bees had won, the area was left in ruins, the trees that the clones were standing in had toppled to the ground, the earth itself was scorched.
It seemed that since the last time that Naruto and his clones were in the area, a bee empire had set itself up as the rulers of that part of the jungle. This was the reason why the clones had not encountered any other form of resistance. Just bees, bees, and more bees. There was room only for one army in this part of the jungle. It was either the Bee Empire, or Naruto's clone army.
The bees of the hive were gathering together in preparation for the first skirmish with their enemy. Their army did not only contain bees, but some other giant insects as well. There was a colony or two of giant wasps, hornets, ants, and mosquitos. There were a number of beetles at the command of the Bees. There were even earthworms that would rival Manda in size. The bees certainly were the rulers of this neck in the woods. Among the giant insects they were at the top of the food chain. The bees did not only have one hive, they had many, they did not only have a colony, they had an empire.
Just as the insects were making preparations, the clones were also doing the same thing. Naruto after regaining a considerable amount of chakra had created even more clones. He now had over ten thousand clones at his disposal. He created the clones after receiving the report about the insect army and its intentions towards him, and his army.
It had been several hours since the last of his army of scholar clones had relayed knowledge to him. In that time, he and his clones had been able to finish building his outpost. The outpost, was originally designed by Naruto and his clones to be able to house twenty thousand troops.
The outpost was three floors high, with a three layered wall around it just as high. The cliff face was behind it, and a one mile open space between the outpost and the jungle in front of it. Between the walls, there were a few sentry towers. Giving clones a view of the field infront on the outpost. On the cliff face itself, there were some ramparts and walkways for clones to walk or run on.
The clones from the quarry, the lumberyard, and the iron mines, had all returned to base. All of whom were present and accounted for.
Naruto then assigned three thousand of the clones to stand guard atop the walls. The walls too had three floors. The clones on the walls wore armor made out of the metals that were refined, they each carried a single bow, and a quiver filled with arrows, the tips of which had been tempered in chakra enhanced fire, making them extra sharp.
Two thousand of the clones were assigned as pikemen. Each one in armor, and each one carrying a long pike. All two thousand would be lying in wait in treches that around the front of the outpost.
Naruto knew enough about bugs, that their underbelly was one of their weak spots.
On the balconies, and on some of the larger platforms on the cliff face, Naruto had several catapults and ballistas. He had two thousand clones man these things.
Below this outpost Naruto had a three layered defensive wall made out of mined diamond, some of which had been found in the mines, and some of which had been collected from the collapsed cave. This underground defense was made in case anyone or anything were to try and enter via under the ground.
Naruto had one thousand of his clones running around the outpost, running errands, bringing supplies here and there. The massive size of the jungle, there was bound to be a number of fruit trees within it, and luckily some of the security clones had found some, and gathered some fruit.
The remaining two thousand clones were given ordered to dispell their katanas, which they then replaced with broadswords. Each was also given, armor, like the other clones, but in addition to this they were given sheilds.
Before doing anything else, Naruto noticed that even though he had created an army which was armed to the teeth, he had forgotten one important thing. He was a shinobi, and what is a shinobi without his Jutsu. So Naruto then created five thousand more clones. Two thousand of which would be running around doing errands and carrying supplies here and there. While the remaining three thousand would be Jutsu Regiment.
One thousand clones would make up the Katon Battallion. One thousand would make up the Raiton Battallion. One thousand would make up the Suiton Battallion. Each battallion of clones focusing on using that one element in attacking the enemy. Bugs burn, bugs fry, and bugs drown.
Now Naruto was ready to take on an army of bugs. His preparations had finished just in time too, because not a minute later, one of the sentry towers alerted the rest of the base to the approaching insect army.
The sentries counted at least fifty thousand big bugs were in the air, with more than a hundred thousand group troops. The clones were outnumbered slightly more than ten to one.
The preparations made by both armies had lasted for no more than three days, but for Naruto it seemed like a three weeks. Even with all the knowledge and wisdom he had accumulated in that time, he did not believe that he would win the war unscathed.
He would not dwell on such thoughts, what was important was the here and the now. He would fight this battle and win it. He would take down as much of the enemy that he could. His clones would win him the war or die trying. He had enough chakra to create more clones, he had enough chakra to create clone army upon clone army for another week, but he didn't think he would need to go that far, or that he would be able to actually go that far. He may need the chakra reserves for something else, like say attack the enemy with Jutsu after Jutsu.
'The Toads would love it here. So many bugs for them to eat. Too bad I can't summon any of them!' he frustatedly thought.
The seconds ticked by, Naruto could not afford to send out his men to fight on the battlefield. He already had the pikemen out there, no need to add more. His clone army waited. The archers waited until just the right moment before they let their arrows fly.
The air and ground troops had just entered the archer and seirge engine firing range. The captain of the archers sounded out his commands.
"Ready!" the archers readied their bows, and drew out their arrows.
"Aim!" the archers knocked their arrows, drew them back, and took aim.
"Steady...steady...wait for it..." the captain said, "FIRE!"
The archers let their arrows fly. "Fire at will men! Fire at will!" the captain shouted, and the archers did just that, the arrows of the captain joining his men.
At the same time the catapults and ballista teams also started firing their weapons. Burning rocks, giant arrows, joined small arrows in flight. All of which successfully hitting home, and downing a target.
Surprisingly the hornets, mosquitos, and wasps, were slower than the bees, and thus had the most number of casulaties. Of the ground troops only around one tenth of them lost their lives. Leaving ninety thousand bugs on the ground to continue marching forward. While in the air even though the other fliers lost a considerable number the bees were still numerous. There were still roughly thirty five thousand bugs in the air flying towards Naruto's outpost.
Naruto had yet to lose any of his clones, he was not going to take any chances in this fight. He signalled to his captain to distract their airborne enemies. The flying bugs must not be able to alert their groud troops to the waiting pikemen.
The clones in charge of the long range weapons had quickly started to reload and fire at a much quicker pace. Aiming for the flying bugs more than the crawling bugs. Half of each of the Jutsu battallions had joined the archers on the walls and were firing off elemental jutsu after elemental jutsu at the flying things. Flights of dragons had taken to the skies and were bombarding the bugs left right and center.
The bees were now suffering more than they were before. Their officers were ordering their ground forces to move faster. Naruto was seriously pissing them off. The clone army was still small in comparison to the Bee's Bug Army. The bees still thought they could win it. But to be on the safe side they called in some reinforcements. The giant bug nobles and royalty arrived a few minutes later to add to already massive bug army.
As the bug army's frontliners reached the pikemen, they died in seconds. The pikemen made short work of the rapidly advancing bugs. Each one raced under bug after bug after bug, shoving their pikes into the softer underbelly of each bug instantly killing each one. Their movements were fluid, as if in a dance, they were each greatly aided with their constant use of chakra to enhance their movement and their death dealing blows.
As more and more of the crawling bugs were killed, the air force started to take notice, and quickly informed the ground commanders of the situation. Which then ordered their troops to slow down and regroup.
The Pikemen noticing that something was off, began to regroup and retreat back towards the outpost.
After regrouping the bug army had seemingly doubled in size, now there were more than one hundred bugs making up the air force, and slightly more than two hundred bugs on the ground. The two groups then started their trek together at a moderate pace.
AS the bugs got within firing range, the archers, catapults, and ballistas let them have it. Wave upon wave of flying death rained down upon the bugs, which just ignored them and kept moving forwards.
Naruto noticed this, and ordered for the gates to be opened, and for all available troops to engage the enemy. If the enemy planned on making this war a one battle war, Naruto would give them a battle that they would remember in their afterlives.
Joining his clones outside the walls, he unsheathed his two blades, his katana with the flowing blood design, and his slightly longer than normal kunai.
Facing the direction of the enemy, his voice rang throughout the battlefield, and was heard by all his clones, "ATTACK!" Then as one they charged. Weapons drawn and Jutsus ready to be unleashed.
Then as one, bug met clone, army met army, and the battle that raged was a fierce one.
Bugs impaled, bit, ate, slashed at, speared, burned, dismembered, vaporised clone after clone after clone, while the clones did the same to the bugs as well. The clones were given a chakra boost by the original which allowed them to live through more blows than they originally could.
Naruto like his clones just kept on cutting, slashing, and stabbing his way throuh the bug army, his goal was not the generals, but the queens. He was accompanied by several of the broadsword wielding, shield carrying clones, who helped defend him as he made his way to the head of the overgrown pest army.
The battle raged on for hours, the bugs only reaching the pikemen's trenches, but being unable to move any further.
While Naruto plowed his way through wave upon wave of bugs, seemingly limitless in number, never seeming to get any closer to his target.
'Shino is gonna kill me if he ever finds out about this..' he absently thinks to himself.
The massive concentration of killing intent, of blood, guts, and gore, and the numbers of bugs in the area had also attracted some other larger than life species of predators who also joined into the fray, tearing bugs limb from limb and feasting upon their remains.
Some of the clones having to band together in order not to get killed by these other hulking meat eaters.
In the sky flocks of predators like the rocs, eagles, hawks, and other flying things enter the skies of the battefield, taking out scores of the flying pests.
The war between two armies had become a massive free for all. Or a war between three armies. On one side there was Naruto and his clone army, fighting for survival against the overgrown pests and the hunger driven predators. Then there was the Bee's Bug Army, fighting for survival as well. Lastly the predator army merely fighting for the abundance of food, and for the heck of it, a large number of whom were just being controlled by their bloodlust, brought about by the environment.
Up above the massive brawl, within the confines of his study, Kyonshi witnessed the war. Gazing at the battlefield making use of his inhuman sight. While at the same time eating some caramel flavored popcorn.
Touken doing the same, but silently and secretly wishing he too could join the fray.
Naruto had finally broken through the bug army, and was now face to face with the queens that ruled the Bee empire. Queen bees, queen ants, wasps, hornet, you name it Naruto faced it. If the bug species had a queen, it was staring down Naruto at that moment.
The Queens thought that they had already won, and that the little thing infront of them was of no consequence, what could one tiny insect do to them. In their still underevolved minds, nothing.
"Fuck it" Naruto just said as powered himself up using chakra and just made minced meat out of the Queens, then he and his clones reentered the fray to make paste out of the remnants of the bug army.
It had been two whole weeks since he first woke up in the fortress infirmary. It had been three days since the his little war with the animal kingdom took place. It had been two days since he had cleaned up the mess the war had made. It had also been just one day since he had finished sealing up all of his new trophies and treasures.
He now houses an army of twenty thousand clones in his outpost at the base of what he has deemed as his cliff.
He has also, with the use of his clones, been able to fully explore one percent of the jungle, which is approximately five hundred thousand square miles worth of dense jungle.
He has also been able to, again with the aid of his clones, constructed another nine outposts just as spacious as his base of operations. Each additional outpost housing twenty thousand more clones each, with enough supplies, armor, and weapons to last for more than three years.
The land in which Kyonshi ruled over seemed to have unlimited resources.
Naruto was presently at the very edge of the jungle, where trees met with sand. The massive desert that circled the jungle was Naruto's next frontier.
With all the construction work he and his clones had been doing, Naruto had learned more than what he used in before and during his little war. He now knew how to create carts, and the like.
He had also been able to tame some twenty five giant scorpions, these he would use to pull his caravan of one hundred carts across the sandy seas. He fancied himself as a modern day explorer. Accompanying him was his usual one thousand clones. Presently he also had five thousand clones scour the library for all useful information about the desert and all it possible and some improbable inhabitants.
So today he began his trek into the sandy unknown. He knew that there was a forest at the other side of the sandy sea, and beyond that a fog hiding another great unknown. He would discover it all. But first he had to get across the desert.
Twenty five of his carts were filled with supplies, most of which had preservation jutsus placed on them.
Along with the scorpions, Naruto had also managed to tame twenty five giant spiders, with which his clones used as mounts. These two bugs he had found living at the edge of the desert. Contrary to what the books told him, these two bugs were actually omnivores, they ate anything, literally. They could survive on sand, should Naruto actually forget to have them fed, they would just suck up some of the surrounding sand.
Each of the giant bugs were able to carry up to forty clones on their backs, plus some other heavier stuff. Each of the bugs carried at least ten clones on its back. The rest of the clones, including Naruto walked.
The spiders and their riders were assigned to being the perimeter guards. With the walking clones being the next line of defense. The cart caravan being in the middle of these two defenses.
After twenty four hours of travelling Naruto and company, came upon an oasis, one the size of Konoha. It was the perfect place to build another outpost in. So Naruto and his clones used the materials they could find to construct another outpost.
With the aid of the sand scorpions and the sand spiders, Naruto and his clone army was able to procure some rocks from below all the sand. Apparently the oasis was situated on the highest rock formation that could be found in the middle of the desert. It was a massive plateau which was situated at the top of a tower of solid rock, that went downward, below the sand for miles. The rocks that the tamed mounts had brought to the surface were not regular rocks but marble, and diamond. The water-diamond paradox would have no meaning in this place, seeing as the amount of water was lesser compared to the amount of diamonds that Naruto could find.
The basic skeleton and the outer walls of the outpost would be made out of diamond, while the insides, would be made out of the black, and the white marble. One wall would be built at the edge of the oasis. Another would be build just at the edge of the lake in the middle of the oasis. And the building itself would be built in the middle of the oasis. It would have four floors in total. One of which would be underwater. With the use of some Katon Jutsus the desert sands would be turned into glass. Due to the abundance of water in the oasis, Naruto would be able to grow a few fields worth of crops. And aside from the glass that would be used for windows and the like, Naruto would have his clones create glassware as well as glass sculptures and the like. He would make the most out of everything he learned and had. Nothing was to be wasted.
The building of his desert outpost had taken Naruto three whole days. Afterwhich he set out into the desert again, in search of the where the sands once again met the trees.
On his fifth day atop the desert sands Naruto saw in the distance something that did not resemble more sand, it looked more like a tree line, one similar to the tree line that could be seen from the sand of Kaze no Kuni, when looking at the direction of Hi no Kuni.
Naruto estimated that he was a day or two away from the forest.
The desert even though it looked dead on the surface was teaming with life below the sands, as Naruto had found out when some of his clones atop one of the scorpions had dived below the sands to see the various creatures living below the surface of the sandy sea.
Naruto and his clones had, after that experience, taken to sketching the different creatures, they even attempted to catalog all that they came across. Due to all the sand diving that Naruto and his clones did, Naruto could now hold his breath for longer than thirty minutes, and that time was still lengthening.
But among all the creatures that Naruto and his clone had encountered, there was one that he did not wish to encounter ever again. It was something that he had dubbed as a lesser dragon, since he did not see any of its kind at anytime within the halls of the fortress. To differentiate this lesser dragon from any other that he might encounter in the future, Naruto named its species as the SandFish. It was roughly eighty feet long, with a pair of limbs near its obviously draconish head. It was light brown in color, which allowed itself to blend in with the sands. It had three long fins on its back, the tip of its tail resembling the tail of a shark. Its two paws, had some really sharp claws on them. Naruto and company had witnessed the SandFish cleave a SandWhale into two. A SandWhale resebled a Killer Whale except it was all white and the biggest one Naruto had encountered was fifty feet long.
Before moving forward toward the visible tree line, the entire caravan stopped moving. The scorpions and the spiders had suddenly ceased all movement. This was a sign that a predator was around, or some where near. The best way to alert any desert dwelling predator to one's presence was movement. All denizens of the deep sandy sea were very sensitive to the vibrations in the sand. As the sands shifted, everything for miles could feel the shift. Predator and prey alike could tell the difference between the varying shifts in the sands. Due to the stiffening of the spiders and scorpions, whatever was below the sandy seas at the moment was definitely not a friendly.
Off in the distance Naruto and company saw a pod consisting of over two hundred individual SandWhales moving through the sands at a really fast pace, as if something was chasing them.
A clone had spotted what had had their mounts so spooked, and the whales moving at such speeds. Not far behind, as Naruto too noticed, were five of the biggest SandFish as Naruto had ever seen, each one reaching at least ninety feet in length. One wrong move on their part, and one of those monsters would be after Naruto and his group. There was no way that Naruto or his pets could outrun one of those beasts. Even with the aid of chakra.
The pod in the distance was getting smaller by the second, either they were getting killed, or they were getting farther. After around twenty minutes, the pod had and the chasing dragons had disappeared completely.
It was a close call for Naruto and his party. Once the mounts had calmed down, they moved onwards.
On the sixth day that Naruto was on the sandy sea, he and his party finally reached the forest, where they were was not yet very dense. So they decided to rest. It was still morning. They didn't need to go anywhere. So they set up camp, and let their mounts wander around.
During the afternoon, Naruto and some of the clones went sand diving not too far from their camp. When suddenly Naruto felt a clone go poof. In its last moments it gazed into the darkness that was the inside of the jaws of a monster. Naruto then quickly alerted his clones and their mounts to move as quickly as they could towards the camp, and as far away from the sand as they could.
He didn't believe that the lack of sand would stop the monster, but he was sure that it would slow it down, long enough for them to escape.
Most of his companions had made it into the forest, but five scorpions and five spiders had yet to reach the relative safety of the trees. The monster was gaining on them, their riders had mostly already jumped off to stall for time. But the speed at which the monster was travelling, their efforts had only caused the monster to become angried. Due to this added feeling of rage, its movements quickened.
Naruto and the remaining clones, made a quick decision, they would try and stall the monster, and possibly kill it.
Three fourths of the clones set out to carry the spiders and the scorpions to safety, using chakra, they were able to make it to more moist land. Naruto and the rest of the clones faced off against the beast. Showering its hide with Katon and Suiton Jutsus, the fire to try and glassify the sand, and water to turn the sand into mud, and hope fully slow it down. Naruto moved back a bit aways from the oncoming dragon. He knew that the beast would destroy his clones, but there was always one thing that had saved him and his clones countless times. There was one technique that he knew would not fail him, he just needed time to make it bigger.
The SandFish had just destroyed all his attacking clones, then it pounced, crashing into a massive spinning ball of blue.
"Oodama Rasengan!" Naruto shouted as he thrust the ball forward shredding the dragon in the process.
The beast was too large to be thrown back, but it was not tough enough to survive such an onslaught.
Before any scavengers could get to the body Naruto sealed it up in a storage scroll, all ten feet wide, ninety feet tall of it was sealed in a scroll.
After resting for the remainder of the week, Naruto and the remaining seven hundred fifty clones and their mounts, began their trek through the dense forest. Surprisingly, they did not encounter anything out of the ordinary, instead, they had encountered some bears that were of normal size, the only thing not normal about them was that they traveled in groups, not like the solitary animals that Naruto knew them to be. Naruto and company had even encountered a mixture of lions, tigers, leopards, all the big cats were travelling together in one pride. For two days Naruto and company had walked with the group of predators, when he and they chanced upon a mighty herd of buffalo and wildebeast. It looked like some sort of annual migration or something. There were enough of the things to feed all the predators he had seen on in his journey and then some.
Naruto and company had even joined in on the frenzy that followed the discovery. Kunai and Katana drawn, seven hundred fifty one Narutos, twenty five spiders, and twenty five scorpions charged the group herd of herbivors. At the end of the day, there were only fourty nine clones left, but the spiders and the scorpions were complete, and Naruto was obviously still among the living.
After parting ways with his predator pals, Naruto and the remainder of his party made their way to where Naruto knew he would find his final destination, the dense fog.
At the end of the month, they had finally made it, Naruto had reached the more or less end of the world, sort of. This end of the world bit only entered his head when he found out that the fog covered a cliff, whose bottom was really far away.
Just as Naruto turned around to start his journey back to the fortress, he was stopped by the sight before him. Sitting on the cloud like fog was Kyonshi, and beside him Touken.
Kyonshi pointed one finger in Naruto's direction and said, "Sit."
Naruto promptly sat on a chair made of clouds.
"About my question, what is your answer?" Kyonshi asked.
"What was the question again?"
"Would you like to be my new apprentice?"
"Do I really have to answer now?"
"Yes."
"What sorts of limitations would I have as you apprentince?"
"You will know of them after you have answered my question."
"I...Can I please have more time?"
"Nope."
"Let me talk to him for a bit, I might be able to get him to decide" Touken whispered to Kyonshi.
"Fine" he whispered back, then told Naruto that he would have til sundown, which was an hour away.
Touken walked over to Naruto, and sat down infront of him.
"You have grown fast in this land. You have also learned many thing. Yes?" he asked Naruto.
"Yes, I think I have."
"You have made friends among the being here as well. Yes?"
"Yes, I have."
"You have worked hard here. Yes?"
"Yes, I have. I always do. No matter where I am."
"You have grown stronger, smarter, wiser, and more. All just by being here."
"Yeah, I guess I have. So what's your point?"
"The Master created this place we are in, along with many of the things within it."
"I kinda figured as much."
"Think, if you were to learn from him, think of how much more you could gain."
"..."
"Once upon a time I merely had eight tails. There were many of us. None thought they could attain a ninth. But with the Master's help, I gained my ninth, and so much more."
"I..."
"You only have a few minutes of sun left. Think about it. If he could create all of this...just think about the possibilities. I was in a way trained and created by him. All nine of us were. I the most powerful of the nine, the one that even the Shinigami could not completely slay. If he could help me become that, think of what he could help you do."
After hearing that Naruto made up his made and faced Kyonshi.
"What was the question again?"
"Would you like to be my new apprentice?"
"Let me think about it...I still have a few seconds of sun left."
"Alright...5...4...3...2...1...what is your answer."
"You got yourself an Apprentice Zombie-sensei!"
Kyonshi then whacks Naruto on the head, "I told you I am NOT an animated corpse! Its Kyonshi not zombie. Get it right!"
"Hehe. Uhm," Naruto said while raising his hand.
"This is not a classroom, ask your question."
"I found an oasis, when from up on the roof there didn't appear to be any of those in sight. Why is that?"
"Simple. Illusions. Something you suck at. Which will be one of the first thing I will be teaching you. Lets face it you may have the imagination for it, but your chakra control plainly sucks. A duck could make better Genjutsu as compared to you. A duck could make better Genjutsu than you even if you had Touken to help you. As far as Kitsune go, the only thing he's actually good at is transformation."
"Hey! Thats low, real low!"
Kyonshi does not deem that statement worthy of an answer and therefore just kicked Touken in the direction of the fortress.
"Zombie-sensei, that was low, real low."
"Shall I kick you too?"
"Nope."
"Good. Your training with me shall start in one month's time. Meet me in my office by then. Its the first door to your left after entering the main doors. You can't miss it," Kyonshi said before walking off into the fog.
As Naruto watches his new sensei walk off, he can't help but hear a creepy voice say, "I'm gonna milk those spy clones for all their worth..Naruto'll rue the day he learned the words: Kage Bushin no Jutsu."
Naruto then turned to his traveling companions, "I'm screwed, aren't I?"
"Yeah, pretty much," his clones answered. The spiders and scorpions just bobbed their heads up and down.