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 6
It had been only two weeks since Kyonshi had instructed Naruto to be in his office to start his apprentiship. This also left Naruto with only two weeks left to do as he pleased. Which is why Naruto was somewhere in the middle of the desert surrounded by two thousand clones, fifty giant spiders, and fifty giant scorpions, all of whom were constructing an oil rig. The blue prints and such were found by some of Naruto's scholar clones in the library. Those clones were also reading up about health, hygiene, and the culinary arts.
Due to originally being able to tame twenty five giant spiders and scorpions, Naruto had also managed to tame an additional twenty five more of each species. Which in effect made travelling a whole lot easier. It also made discovering new things a whole lot easier.
The scorpions and spiders had discovered a large deposit of black gold, which Naruto decided he wanted. So he created two thousand clones to help him get it, as well as two thousand scholar clones to find out how to get the thing.
Naruto needed so two thousand clones at the construction site due to half doing the actual construction, one fourth running back to the desert outpost for supplies and material, and one fourth defending the site from invading animals, creatures, beasts, and those pesky SandFish.
Apparently the spiders could spin some really tough silk. Depending on the spider the silk would either be hard as steel or as silky as, well, silk. As for the scorpions, those stingers of their and pinchers were good for cutting things and poking holes into things. The poison that they could secrete out of the tip of their tails had different properties depending on what the scorpion needed. It could be as clear and harmless as water, and it could also be as corrosive as acid, for some reason the scorpion was one of the only things that was unaffected by it, the other thing was diamond, and the last thing was anything coated in chakra. Chakra enhanced water is also the only thing that could get rid of the stuff.
It had taken the whole day, but in the span of that day the rig was completed and operational. It was held up above the sandy sea by lots of really thick glass pillars.
Due to boredom, some of the scholar clones had further researched Fuuinjutsu, the art of seals. With this knowledge, and through trial and error, clones were so useful, Naruto was able to place a number of seals on the oil tanks and barrels to allow more space within, as well as to make sure that nothing bad happens to the containers as well as that which was contained.
After the completion of the oil rig, Naruto once more set out into the desert accompanied by the original twenty five scorpions and twenty five spiders, as well as fifty clones. They headed in the direction of the jungle. Their goal was to actually find a swamp. A big one.
After running for three days Naruto and company arrived at the edge of the jungle. Once there Naruto created two more clones. He had all his companions split into two groups. Each group would go in a separate direction in search of a swamp. When a group found one, one of the clones would dispel itself, to relay the location to Naruto who would then instruct the other group via chakra link to go wherever the swamp was located.
Naruto would be the only member of group three, he too would be looking for a swamp.
Three hours later Naruto came across the other two groups, for some reason they had come across the same swamp, but luckily they had found different things in the parts they were close to.
Group one found not only swamp water, but also quicksand. Group two had found not only swamp water but also several tar pits, luckily none of their rides had fallen in. Naruto on the otherhand had just found the swamp, he landed in the water atfter missing the branch of the next tree he was aiming for.
They found the swamp. So Naruto created a thousand more clones. He split them up into ten groups. Group one would be incharge of contruction. Group two would be in charge of transport. Group three would be in charge of catching the fish in the swamp. Group four would be in charge of gathering the tar from the pits. Group five would be in charge of gathering the quicksand. Group six would be in charge of taming any giant antlions, that group five might encounter. Group seven would be in charge of site security. Group eight would be in charge of transport security. Group nine would be in charge of walling up, or fencing off the swampland. Group ten would be in charge of adding seals to the walls, seals that would help in the defense of the swampland from tresspassers, and other things.
Along with the oil rig reseach, the scholar clones had researched about swamps, this fascination was brought about by Naruto's connection to the Gama clan. The quicksand was just a thing some of the clones came across, and the tar was just something that looks cool. The information about the antlion, was gathered when Naruto was preparing for his Bug War.
Naruto's plan was to turn the swampland into fish ponds, a fish farm of sorts. Realizing that he knew nothing about fish, he created a thousand clones to go research about the topic.
For some reason fish was one of the few things that didn't have a bigger form. They came in normal sizes, but what they lacked in size they made up in number as well as in variety. There were literally thousands of different species, and as Naruto would soon learn, not all of the water in the swamp was fresh water.
Once he gained the knowledge of the five hundred clones that stuck to the original assignment he created another one thousand clones to man the fish farm.
With one week til his training was to begin, Naruto decided that he would explore some of the unexplored parts of the mountain. Maybe he could find something else to tame, to mine, to gather, to etcetera.
So leaving his travelling compaions at his headquarters. He climbed up the cliff face. After reaching the moutain peak where the fortress was found, Naruto raced towards where he remembered the cave being. After reaching it he created two thousand clones and sent them into the cave to collect what they could of the remaining gold and crystals.
Naruto having gotten used to creating thousands upon thousands clones, after mastering a way for them to last longer than they originally should, still needed the handseal and the words when he was to create the number of clones that he wanted to create to help him in his latest quest.
"TAJUU KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!" were the words that echoed throughout the mountain.
Two hundred fifty thousand clones materialised before his very eyes. All of which preprogrammed to scour what of the rest of the mountain that they could.
Clones scrambled in every direction. Each one seeking something that would interest them, and in turn interest their creator. With speeds that as far as Naruto knew only Ninja could move at, the clones travelled the impossibly massive mountain. Hundred of which accidentally dispelling themselves in their rush. The torrent of information bombarding Naruto's mind a mile a minute. Unable to handle the strain on his mind, the blonde haired idiot passed out. The first day of his last week of freedom was spent in dreamland.
Waking up on the ground the next day Naruto, changed his clothes into a fresher set that he thankfully kept in a storage scroll, that also held a variation of the menu found in the mess hall. The instructions of how to make one were found by some scholar clones in the library, as well as some other useful stuff.
Apparently all of the clones he had sent off in search of something to do had all dispelled. Some found something interesting, while others just, went poof.
Naruto then created ten thousand clones, and divided them into ten group. Each group would travel to a different destination. Nine of the groups had set off in search of an adventure in the direction that Naruto ordered them to go to. While Group ten was left to accompany Naruto to another cave, a few miles away from the cave he was near.
Naruto's group was the first one to reach their destination. The cave entrace was just a small hole in the mountain, it was small enough for only five clone to pass through at the same time. Already knowing what to expect he had the clones just run into the cave. He ordered them to hide themselves as best as they could once they reached the massive cavern at the end of the tunnel. Being found out by the inhabitants of the cave was a bad thing.
As group ten was stealthily entering the cave, group one was surrounding a bowl shaped dent in the ground. There were five layers of clones surrounding the perimeter. Some of the clones had made their way into the crater, as stealthily as they could as not to alert the crater's inhabitants of their approach and their presence.
The crater was home to nest upon nest of giant birds of prey, one distinguishing feature of these birds was that their feathers were mostly of the color white. From the vantage points of several of the clones, the biggest of the birds had a wingspan of fourty eight feet. One group of clones found a discarded feather that they measured as being twenty four feet long. Some of the clones that were closer to one of the nest estimated that the eggs were at least one hundred feet in circumference. The clones that had been reading about birds's efforts had sure paid off. They had stumbled upon a Roc nesting site. Good thing the library had books about how to care for any, literally any kind of animal in existence, as well as perceived nonexistence.
The clones had a job to do, steal and seal as many of those eggs as they could get their thousand pair of hands on. The clones in the crater would wait for the clones up top to distract the birds before they would make their move. They may not have had any storage scrolls but they would have to make do with the discarded feathers around them.
The clones up above the nesting site, started to prepare Jutsus. Half of the group was up top, while the other half was in the crater. The clones had decided to use a combination of Fuuton: Daitoppa, Doton: Dochuu Eigyo, and Katon: Housenka no Jutsu, to lure out the adult birds.
Only three fourths of the clones would use Jutsu, the others would run interference with the birds.
At a predetermined time, the first group of Jutsu users let fly a storm of fireballs in the direction of the many nests in the crater. This storm was followed by a strong blast of wind from the second group, thus increasing the size and power of the fireballs.
The birds quickly reacted by taking to the skies, thinking that their nests would be protected from the attacks. Rising above the mouth of the crater the birds started to dive bomb the clones.
Just before the birds would hit the clones, who had now directed their projectiles at the flying birds, the third group of jutsu users fired literal fishes made of rock, mud, and basically earth at the approaching birds of prey. Those that were to close to pull up in time were injured by the hundreds of solid fish that slammed into their bodies.
There were literally hundreds of the blasted things in the air, circling the clones, while at the same time avoidin their attacks.
While the clones up top were sucessfully keeping the adults occupied, the clones in the crater quickly made their move, they sealed away half of each clutch worth of eggs, which totaled to around two thousand five hundred eggs all in all.
The birds in the sky had noticed little ants moving to and fro near and in their nests. The birds that noticed this alerted their fellows, and decided that it was time for them to go on the offensive. Half of the birds stayed in the air, while the other half shot down like rockets towards the nesting area. Upon landing they moved as quick as they could to the nearest clones to take them out.
Caught by surprise more than half of the clones had fallen to the surprise attack, the remaining clones made a mad dash for the mouth of the crater. But they didn't forget the storage feathers. Two hundred clones scrambled out of there as fast as they could. The other fifty of their number stayed behind to buy them some time, by fighting the birds.
Some of the clones formed tornadoes of water to surround their bodies as they rushed the birds injuring many before they succumbed to chakra depletion. Other clones surrounded themselves in tornadoes of fire, that would not only scorch the earth, but also burn anything that touched its walls. Those clones too rushed the birds, and they too, in time would run out of chakra.
Some of the birds would take to the air and try and blow the clones away, but the gale force winds that they produced by beating their wings just strengthened the towers of fire. The Will of Fire burned brighter than the clones would ever be able to burn. This aid from the birds, would help the fire clones to injure more birds than they had originally planned on taking out of the fight.
The clones that were buying time for the retreating clones were careful not to harm the remaining eggs. They knew that wiping out the whole nest would be a really bad thing. For one it would be like they had commited genocide. They knew that their creator would not be able to handle the guilt that that would bring about.
Some of the other clones would power up multiple elemental dragons to fly in the sky and intercept the birds. The Rocs were something else. They battled using their beaks, claws, wings. Everything they got when they were confronted by these dragon. They viewed the dragons as a greater threat as compared to the clones. All the birds quickly engaged the dragons.
Noticing what the clones down below had done, the remaining clones up top started forming their own elemental dragons. Somehow they were able to make it possible for the dragons to fly in the sky free and unencumbered.
Some of the clones got the idea of multitasking, these clones would pair up and jump on the heads of their dragons, one clone would control and maintain a dragon, while the other would breathe out attack ranging from air bullets, to grand fireballs, to jets of hot water, that would be directed at nearby Rocs.
The clones had been fighting for hours. The retreating clones had yet to climb out of the crater. Going down was one thing, going up without getting killed was another.
It was nearing sundown, and the battle still raged on, there were still some six hundred clone in the battlefield, while the Rocs still numbered in the hundreds, hundreds more than the clones. The safe escape of the two hundred clones with the storage feathers was the top priority of the still fighting four hundred clones.
Clone group two had made it to a waterwall. It wasn't the waterfall that intrigued them, it was the creatures that were living at the foot of the waterfall. The waterfall itself was a stagerring eight thousand feet tall, it was also thirty five thousand five hundred feet wide. At its base was a lake with a single opening that lead to a river, that if followed would lead to another waterfall, the foot of which would be somewhere in the surrounding jungle, in an unexplored area for Naruto.
The lake itself was five hundred seventy two miles at its widest point, and it was one thousand seven hundred eighty four miles long, and it had a depth of eight hundred ninety five thousand seven hundred fifty six feet at its deepest part. Starting from the water's edge to the treeline was white sand, plain white sand. At the edge of the shores of the lake various kinds of trees could be found. Trees that could not be seen from the roof of the fortress due to numerous illusions. The surrounding forests and jungles were inhabited by both regular sized and super sized creatures.
The creatures living in the water ranged from things that should be extinct to things that should not really even exist. But the one creature that the clones had gone to the waterfall base for were crocodiles. A certain species that to most of the rest of the world should be extinct. They were known as, according to the scholar clones' research, sarcosuchus aka SuperCroc. The longest one that the clones could find was forty feet long. Like most crocs these monster kept their eggs safely tucked away in nests. It was time for the clones to split up into two groups. One group would distract the adults, while the other group would steal and seal some eggs into storage leaves.
Naruto and his clones would later play god with the eggs and manipulate their DNA into giving the crocs a tougher hide, their hide would be made out of some kind of organic metal.
Back to the matter at hand, the nest were hidden somewhere either in the foliage or on the shore. The clones had a difficult job a head of them. Not only were they supposed to avoid getting maimed by the crocs, but they would also have to avoid certain death from the other inhabitants of the lake, as well as the surrounding green. One thousand clones versus possibly thousands of other creatures was not good odds.
To get the attention of the crocs a fourth of the diversionary team jumped into the water with kunai in hand. An advanced Henge later they were ten foot long scorpions with flippers instead of legs in the water, but even in this form they had no chance against a fully grown supercroc, so they improvised. Swimming around the one hundred twenty five clones spotted a pod of dolphins, adding chakra to their flippers and fins the clones rushed the dolphins and started cutting into their flesh, causing scent of blood to fill the water.
The clones succeeded in catching the attention of not only the crocs but also every other prdator in the lake. The other one hundred twenty five clones that were on the water's surface noticed tha something had gone terribly wrong, they noticed this just as their brothers shot out of the water and ran towards land with a school, pod, or horde of other things right on their tails. The clones on the surface followed their brothers shortly after.
The clones had caused the predators to do into a bloody brawl, the bloodlust in the area was suffocating, the predators paid it no mind, but the other creatures in the area ran or swam for cover immediately.
The other half of the diversionary team had been splitting the waterwall as well as standing on the rocks protruding out of it. But these clones had to bolt from their positions due to the number of carnivorous things that were coming out of the waterfall to join the brawl.
The brawl had been raging for more than two hours already, the smell of spilt blood had attracted the land predators to the lake, which gave the clones a lot more problems than they thoght they could handle.
The clones that were searching for the eggs had finally finished their searching, stealing, and sealing, they were also able to get eggs from other reptiles, they signalled to the other clones that they were done, and were about to leave when their path was blocked by rampaging mammal, reptiles, and other such creatures. The clones were trapped between the crimson lake, and the forest of death.
So the clones decided to fight their way through, so they rolled up the storage leaves, and tied them with some vines, and secured them to a clone, one clone that the other four hundred ninety nine would protect.
The clones ran for it through the fighting forms of the predators, some herbivors had unfortunately joined the fray. While the clones ran, those at the edges of the group were spewing mud on the ground from their mouths, the mud would then rise up somehow and form rock hard walls that would prevent anything from passing through and dispelling the clones. To make the ride back to the fortress faster the clones at the back of the rushing column created some suiryuus that the other clones jumped on to ride on, these water dragons combined with the chakra of all the clones flew through the dense forest and some jungle swifter than the clones were originally moving at.
Darkness was creeping in, when the dragons broke through the tree tops and started to soar above the trees, but no higher than the roof of the fortress in the distance.
Soon the dragon riders noticed a fierce sky battle between some dragons and some giant birds. One of the clones formed a dragon, and leapt onto it, while another one joined him as his Jutsu support. The two man reconaissance team then flew off in the direction of the battle to get a closer look.
As they neared the battle they recognised their brethren. Battling the birds atop their own elemental creations. The recon team, then swiftly flew back to their group, and relayed what they had witnessed.
The Roc hunting party were in big troule and were in need of assistance badly. The supercroc party then deicided then and there that they would aid their brothers. The clone with the eggs would go on ahead to headquarters instead of the fortress, three more clones would go with him, they would ride on a dragon of wind. The clone with the eggs and his three guards swiftly left on their dragon.
The half of the remaining clones formed their own dragons, two per dragon, one driver, and one support. Then they rode of into battle.
It was nightfall, and yet the sky was as bright as day with all the flahing lights from the various jutsu.
At the same time that groups one and two had reached their destinations, group three had also reached theirs. It was a cliff, with a sheer drop, but on the cliff face there were some caves carved into it. Their targets would be found in those caves.
The creatures that group three were after were reptiles, they were snakes of a sort. Big, long ones. The longest one would probably be around fifty feet in length, at the same time weighing slightly more than a ton. These monsters were huge. Their venom was so poisonous, that if not treated quickly the victim would die a painful death, the venom would take nearly instantaneous effect. It could also kill at a glance, although its gaze was somewhat selective, it had the ability to control when to and when not to kill. The beast whose eggs the clones had come for were those of the basilisk, the serpent king kind. Just like the myths surrounding such creatures, they could be created by having a toad sit on a chicken egg til it hatches, but unfortunately for Naruto the only toads and chicken eggs he could find were five feet tall each, he had yet to come across a normal sized toad or chicken. Which left the clones to gather the eggs of the beast.
Slowly the thousand clones scaled the cliff face, once some of them reached one of the openings they entered. They formed rasengans to be used as their light source. The tunnels were dark after all.
There were fifty holes all in all, meaning twenty clones entered each of the clones. Slowly each group walked through the tunnels, hoping against all hope that the serpents would not sense them.
Three hours of walking later, the groups converged in a large chamber with more tunnels leading out of it. There were also some torches and the like hanging on the walls.
"Something tells me we aren't the only intelligent life in here," one of the clones said.
The clones then moved onwards, more cautiously than before, hopefully they would not have to come face to face with the other beings that were in the tunnels.
A few more minutes of walking later the clones entered chamber, the floor littered with eggs. There were no snakes in sight, but the clones were now more than cautious. One hundred of the clones shapeshifted into lizards and crawled on the walls of the chamber to get a better view of the place. The other clones too transformed into other much smaller creatures.
The lizard team, from up on the walls, saw that in the middle of the chamber was a pit, the pit was writhing as if alive. One clone that had transformed into a bird flew over the opening to get a better look at the inside. What it saw frightened it, inside the pit were snakes, snakes, and more snakes. There were snakes and serpents of all sizes, and lengths. But not one of them looked like an adult basilisk.
Off on one side of the chamber part of the wall suddenly parted, revealing a half man, half lizard being, a lizard-man. In one hand it carried a torch, in the other it carried an egg. It somehow manuevered itself to an empty spot and placed the egg there. Then it left the room, sealing the hole in the wall from whence it came.
The clones were actually surprised to see something else aside from the snakes that they were expecting. But now that it was gone, the clones had their chance. They didn't know when the thing would come back so they all reverted to their human selves, and started collecting eggs. It was a good thing that the eggs were the size of normal chicken eggs, except for the fact that they were all colored dark green, and had a scaly texture. Some of the clones had brought some leaves with them, which they used in the place of storage scrolls.
After sealing some five thousand eggs, the clones collectively heard the sound of footsteps, fast approaching. Rolling up the storage leaves, the clones quickly made their escape out of the holes from whence they came. They left the caverns not a minute too late, for should they have stayed any longer they would have seen more than five hundred spear and sword wielding lizard-men storming the chamber. The snakes from the pit must have somehow alerted them to the presence of the clones.
The clones took a break at the top of the cliff, thinking that there was no way that those lizard-men would be able to reach them for some time. They thought that they had time to rest.
But it was not meant to be, when suddenly out of the surrounding foliage a hundred spears flew out, narrowly missing the clones.
"Doton Kekkai: Dorou Doumu," a clone announces after a seal sequence.
The clone and his companions are hidden from view under a dome of chakra enforced earth. The barrier separating them from their attackers who were slamming into the dome on the outside.
Formulating an escape plan, the clones decide to use that which the other groups are likely to use.
Bursting out of the earth dome the clones take to the skies in a surprising flight of dragons. This action surprsed the lizard-men so much that it also frightened them enough to forget about going after the egg theives.
The clones decided to have two dragons fly faster in order to reach their headquarters faster. The sooner the eggs are delivered, the sooner the preservation jutsus and seals could be placed on them.
The remaining clones flew onwards in search of the other groups, somehow knowing that they would be in need of some help.
Group four found themselves in the presence of a herd of grazing cows, regular sized cows. Hundreds of them grazing in an open field somewhere on the mountain.
The plan was simple, the clones were to somehow herd the cows to where group five should have finished building a dairy farm, and slaughterhouse.
Beef and milk produce was one of the reasons Naruto had his clones go to this part of the mountain. The clones were tasked to herd as many cows and bulls as they could.
The clones couldn't afford a stampede, so they slowly made their way around the bovines. After forming a perimiter they started making earth walls around the animals, enclosing them in the impromptu pen.
Now the clones just had to figure out how to move the them to the location where the farm was being built.
Since they had been able to trap a lot of the aniamls in their earth wall pen, the clones decided that they would try out their herding skills with the rest of the herd. The still free to move about ones.
One hundred clones stayed with the pen to watch over their catch, while the other nine hundred went off to "play" with the cattle.
A bunch of clones decided to create, elemental wolves that they would ride on to try and do what sheep dogs do. Since that was their first time with elemental wolves it took several clones to imprint a kind of personality into their creations.
Some of the other clones stuck to the tried and tested way of doing things, and just created dragons to ride. These clones would serve as the lookouts, instead of sentry towers, there were elemental dragons in the sky, each one being manned by ten clones.
Due to all the chakra and elemental manipulation that Naruto did with the help of his clones, his chakra control had skyrocketted. Meaning that he was able to use some genjutsu, he still did not have the control needed for the smaller things, but the larger, area-effect type of illusions he could do.
With the help of his clones Naruto had figured out that basically, in the field of genjutsu, there was no such thing as limitaions. The only limitations that there were in that particular field were the limits of his imagination. As a prankster, there were no such limitations. He just had to put his hairbrained ideas to practical use.
Due to his present ability to use genjutsu the Naruto clones monitoring the penned cattle had decided to try and manipulate the minds of the cattle, the clones would try and trick cattle into moving in the direction that they, the clones, needed the cattle to go. They would plant the idea of going to the location into the minds of the cattle.
After some trial and error, the hundred clones had managed to make the animals move in the direction of where group five's farm was located.
Fifty of the clones were maintaining the genjutsu, while the other fifty were creating and destroying walls around the animanls, they were making sure that if the genjutsu somehow failed, the cattle wouldn't be able to escape.
The clones that were fooling around with the unpenned cattle were having some luck of their own, the sheep dog idea seemed to be working. But it was a draining experience, the clones on the wolves had to take turns in keeping their rides alive. Keeping the elemental wolves alive like they were was still something the clones had not come up with.
Amaterasu had gone to sleep and left Tsukiyomi to bathe the land in his light. Sometime before dusk group five had finished their task, thanks in part to group six who had found the pigs near to group five's place. Sometime after sunset was when group four and lots of cattle made it to the farm, ranch, whatever.
Group four dispelled their wolf creations, and began to help out with the duties of the newly constructed and populated farm.
But not all the clones of group four were helping out. The ones on the dragons had noticed the light show in the distance, and went off to investigate.
Group seven and eight had met up after not being able to find the creatures that they were sent off to find. It seemed that the creatures they were looking for, the rhinocerous and elephants had migrated or something.
But there was something else that they had found, ankylosaurus. Beast of burden and tank all rolled up into one. Just one problem, there were too many of them. The clones needed to find their nesting grounds, so that they could steal and seal some eggs. Training from birth, is easier, and better than taming then training. The clones had their work cut out for them.
The two thousand clones split up into forty much smaller groups to search for the nesting grounds. The ankylosaurus not yet noticing the clones. Luckily for the clones.
The area that the clones were in was a rocky plain, with some bushes here and there, as well as some grassy areas littering the plain. More than half of the open plain was covered in ankylosaurus.
These cold blodded critters grew to be at most thirty five feet long, stading at eleven feet tall, and weighing at most ten thousand pounds. These creatures' bodies were covered with hard bony plates that served as their body armor against most attacks. They also sported a club at the end of their tails. For added protection, these critters had horns at the side of their heads, as well as spike along the sides of their bodies.
It took the clones three hours to find the nesting grounds, but they had encountered another problem. The nests were being guarded by the reptiles, there were just as many reptiles as there were nests. This posed a problem for clones. They were slow beasts, slow but heavy and strong beasts, it wouldn't be such a good idea for the giant lizards to destroy their own nests, and shatter their own eggs, it would be counter productive for both parties.
The two groups of clones peered at the nesting grounds from a higher ridge of rocks that were overlooking the grounds. They needed a plan, there were losing daylight, and they were sure that as soon as they lost daylight those grazing ones would return to their nests.
The clones couldn't use any offensive or defensive jutsus to distract or lure the creatures away from the nests. So the clones had to think, and they had to think quickly. Some of the sentries that they had keep a look out for any returning creatures had just reported that the creaters were ambling their way back to the nesting grounds.
The only thing that the clones could think of was travelling underground and plucking th eggs right from under the creatures' noses. Of course this would lessen the number of eggs that they would be able to collect, but even just two thousand eggs would be worth it.
So the clones implemented their plan and used Doton jutsus to burrow beneath the rocky soil and travel the distance to the various nests, swiftly plucking the eggs one by one from the nest, then quickly returning to their places on the ridge. After all the clones had returned they sealed the eggs in leaves that they had picked up from the surrounding foliage.
Then they made their way towards their headquarters. There they would place preservation jutsus and seals on the eggs to keep them alive, until all the facilities that would be used to raise and care for them had been built.
Group nine had finally made it to their destination. It was a prairie found some four thousand miles above jungle level, jungle level being the jungle ring surrounding the mountain. The massive prairie ground was roughly somewhere midway up the mountain.
This prairie was filled with miles and miles of grass. Grass that was being eaten by several herds of horses. Wild horses are animals that Naruto believed to be important. This thought was brought about by his growing military knowledge. Due to being a shinobi, Naruto wanted to learn more about fighting, not just hand to hand fighting as most ninja did, but everything else that had to do with fighting. He knew that, despite acting like an idiot, that being Hokage meant that he would be a military leader, a leader similar to what he was to his thousands upon thousands of clones. He actually studied the history of the ninja world, he just didn't apply himself during his academy years due to instinctively knowing that since the people already hated him for something that he was not aware of, he did not want to make people notice him for his intelligence, he somehow knew that they would just say that he was cheating or something, the people would just find some way to discredit him. So to avoid any problems, Naruto had just acted dumb, he put up a front that he was the happy go lucky idiot that many people saw.
Naruto had some of his clones study everything that had to do with fighting, be it physical, verbal, ideal, etcetera. There were clones that researched warfare, some actually coming into contact with Sun Tzu's Art of War, how the hell a copy got into the library Naruto didn't really care, but it was there. Some of the clones had studied military tactics and strategy. Some of the clones had studied debate, arguments, logic, and psychology. There were some clones that just searched for and studied theories and the like. Touken one day helped Naruto's scholar clones by explaining some more complex things and ideas, which kind of advanced Naruto's thinking processes, as well as jump starting some of broken brain parts. If his mind were likened to a machine, many of the things in it were recalibrated and upgraded. Naruto's Kage Bushin learning method had hot wired his brain, this method of research, study, and development, had somehow forced his brain to evolve somehow, his brain was forced to go beyond its previously set limitations. The mind is the most dangerous thing in existence. The mind has lots of untapped potential. Naruto's learning method forced his mind to tap into this potential.
Horses, if his clones could get some, tame some, and train some, would be of great use to him once he was allowed to leave. Naruto during his short stay had quickly become a literal one man army. He needed something that could be used as cavalry, horses were the tried and tested creatures. Naruto knew from his history lessons that horses were used by samurai as well as the Lords of the lands in their great armies.
That being the reason as to why the thousand clones were trying to figure out a way to catch the horses. They had to find a way to corral the horses. The thought of using earth barriers had been suggested but, the clones pushed that idea aside due to possibility of the horses being faster than wall formation. They went with the next best thing, they would do as the group that were tasked with collecting cattle. But instaed of wolves, they would stick to dragons. Wind dragons to be precise. These elemental creations were the fastest ones that the clones could control and create. Their bodies were held together by gale force winds, they would make the perfect boudaries to keep the horses within a wall formed by a thousand wind dragons.
The clones' only remaining problem would be where they would house, care, and train the horses. Naruto overlooked this one problem, nobody is perfect. So it was left to the clones to figure out where and how to keep the horses, that by this time they had captured, secured.
Half of the clones jumped off of their mounts, the remaining riding half utilized their crude control of chakra strings, which were more like cables, to control the riderless dragons.
The demounted clones rushed to create some kind of solid corral, quickly going through some hand seals, the clones spewed out mounds and mounds of mud, that would quickly harden to form stone barriers and walls. The clones were forming large enclosures that would serve as corrals for the horses. The space was enough to hold up to five thousand horses. Once they were done, some clones signaled to the dragon riders that they were ready or the horses. Afterwards the clones began construction on the buildings that would serve as the living quarters, offices, and whatnot of the clones that were to be staying with the horses. It was a few hours later that the facility was completed.
These clones, after finishing their duty sent out four clones to inform headquarters of their success.
Naruto and his clones had finally reached a massive chamber filled with crags, protruding rocks, smaller caves, and the like covering the walls of the chamber, boulders and the like littering the chamber floors. Another thing that Naruto and his clones took note of was the sheer amount of gold, jewels, and other treasures that also littered the floor of the chamber. Some clones that were able to get near the mouths of some of the smaller caves within the chamber were able to catch glimpses of hidden mounds of treasures.
Naruto ordered his clones to hide themselves, the creature that they were seeking to gain was highly inteligent as well as highly dangerous.
Naruto had his clones fan out throughout chamber, all of them still hiding. They were all searching for their prey. The species of reptile that Naruto was aiming to acquire were smarter than the others that he had his clone armies hunt for, these ones may not have been smarter than some of their fortress dwelling cousins, but they were smart enough, and dangerous enough to have gained Naruto's attention.
Naruto had previously encountered some of its other cousins in the great desert, the SandFish. Naruto didn't really care about the names of some of the other creatures in this place. This so called land which Kyonshi rules over and most likely created somehow was home to a nigh infinite number of different species of animals. Too many names to remember so Naruto just stuck to his nicknames for many of them.
The beast that Naruto was hunting had scales from snout to tail tip. It moved on four legs, very different to the species that Naruto was used to, instead of gliding with the help of some kind of magic. His prey had a pair of wings, which were bat-like in appearance. As compared to their more intelligent and sleek cousins, these animals had some slightly more bulkier or muscular bodies. These creatures had a snake-like neck, just like their cousins, which separated their horned head from their bodies. Their jaws had rows upon rows of shark-sharp teeth. At the tip of their tails were short blades that could be used for protection or defense. These creatures had the ability to breathe out the elements, fire, ice, lightning. Their roars were something that could frighten even the most fearless of creatures. Their paws had claws that were just as sharp as the blades on their tails or the teeth held within their jaws. Their claws were somewhat special, these having the same ability as felines, they could detract their claws. They came in different colors, as well as in different sizes. The largest one that Naruto and his clones had been able to spot was over fifty feet in length from snout to tail tip, with a wingspan of seventy five feet from wingtip to wingtip. It stood at a height of twenty feet tall. These creatures were one of the many lesser dragons, they were known as western dragons which was according to some of the books that the scholar clones had memorized. Naruto decided to just call refer to them as dragons.
The large dragon that Naruto and his clones saw was resting in the middle of the massive cavern, on a mound of gold and jewels. Around it on similar mounds were smaller dragons.
Naruto knew from the knowledge he had gathered, that these creatures had enhanced sense, which senses he did not know. As much as he would love to find out, he did not want to find out when the hunter become the hunted.
He motioned for some of his clones to see what were inside the caves. While he and the rest of his clones continued hiding among the rocks, crags, and other places they could hide in.
The knowledge that Naruto had accumulated did not contain the social patterns or behaviors of these creatures. He couldn't ask the dragons back in the fortress how these cousins of theirs behaved because they were of different species, and as intelligent as they were, they were still very arrogant and did not care to associate themselves with less intelligent creatures, or rather with the less intelligent and self aware of their kind.
Naruto and his clones had forgotten to take into account the possibility that the dragons could smell them. Apparently these dragons had an enhanced sense of smell, Naruto and his clones learned this after a blast of flame was shot out of one of the holes in which the one of the clones had entered. This jet of flame alerted the resting dragons to the danger lurking within their cave. Quickly each and every one of the resting dragons rose up to their full heights, making use of their enhanced senses to seek out the tresspassers.
Naruto knew that the awakening of the cave dwellers meant that he and his clones could no longer hide. To survive, Naruto now had to fight.
The nesting mothers started to come out of their cave nests to confront Naruto's clones. The fire, lightning, and ice that were being breathed out by the beasts were no danger to the eggs that Naruto was after, but they were a danger to Naruto and his clones.
The dragons' behavoir clued in Naruto to the very social behavior of the dragons. The dragons looked to be following the orders of the largest of them all. It seemed to be that the smaller dragons were being positioned in strategic locations nearer or closer to the mouths of the cave nests. They were the support for the nesting females. There were a lot of dragons in the cave, apparently a lot more than Naruto and the clones had originally seen, or noticed. Naruto and his clones were at a huge disadvantage.
They may have encountered dragons before, but not in the numbers that they were facing in the cave.
The clones spread out, and prepared for the deadly confrontation that was about to take place. Naruto decided that if he was going to fight he would get to chose his opponent, and being the leader of his group, he would challenge the alpha male of the flight. While his clones would take on the others.
Naruto and the bull, the bull being the large male, sized each other up, they circled each other wary of the capabilities and abilities of the other.
As one the two leaders attacked. Naruto lashing out with his katana, the dragon with its claws. The dragon forced Naruto to parry and dodge the the razor blades jutting out of the dragons forelimbs. While Naruto was able to fend give the dragon many wounds.
Frustrated at the lack of contact that it was making the dragon started to use its teeth and tail blade as well. This action forced Naruto to bring out his kunai as well as using chakra enhanced kicks.
As the dragon's jaws came down on his form while a claw attempted to slash his guts open, Naruto blocked the slash, while at the same time kicking the dragon's advancing jaws. The katana that blocked the claws was covered in a thin layer of wind natured chakra, thus Naruto was able to slice into the dragon's paw. The kick on the otherhand was not strong enough to shatter the dragon's jaw, but it was strong enough to send the dragon's head back, and the dragon reeling back.
Both opponents made some distance between each other, knowing that they could each take a short break from fighting one another. While they were taking their rest from their battle they couldn't help but witness the actions of their comrades battling around them. Some were defending, while the others were attacking.
Groups of clones were forcing earth, mud, and stone walls to jut out of the ground to protect them from the dragons' breath that were supposed to cook them. While other clones threw rasengan bombs at the attacking dragons, these bombs were basically self sustaining rasengans that could be thrown. Naruto still had not been able to complete the imcomplete invention of the Yondaime Hokage, but his latest way of using the attack was just what he needed at the moment. These clones, unlike their creator, had the time to form attacks, they did not need to rely on their kunai to ward of attacks and to attack in return. Several of the dragons had fallen to the rasengan bombardment, but not the clones, save for the one that got found out, had been killed.
The dragons had been using everything in their arsenal. Realizing that their attacks were not penetrating the defenses of the clones, some of the dragons were starting to give up, while the others just kept up their attacks in the hopes of out lasting their enemy.
The dragons had seemed to forget that they had the power of flight at their beck and call, but that was a good thing, if all of them decided to take to the air they would just crowd themselves and kill themselves in the process.
The clones by the caves in the walls tried to pass by the mothers that were guarding the entrance to their nests, but they did not seem to have made any progress. The female dragons were tougher and more dangerous than the males that were fighting on the chamber floor. Some of the clones had already poofed out of existence due to the she-dragons' attacks.
Back with Naruto and the bull, the two had already resumed their attacks. Their break had only lasted for a minute before they were back at each other's throats.
Naruto decided that he needed to end the fight, since he doubted that he could continue fighting the large predator for the rest of the day and continue into the night. This was not a battle of attrition. This was a battle for leadership, as Naruto had realized.
He decided that he would try an attack that had yet to be tested. He would add chakra to his katana, but instead of just an added sharp layer, he would have the chakra form a chainsaw blade. Instead of just cutting into his opponent's skin, he would hopefully be able to cut through it. Hopefully gravely injure the beast. His plan was to either force the bull to back off, sever a limb, or worst case scenario was to kill it. The rest of his plan was to just run up to the bull and perform a jump slash. It was kind of a kamikaze plan, but if it didn't work he could just kawarimi with a clone.
The rest of the dragons inside the chamber somehow instinctively knew that the next few moments would be the the deciding move of the battle for supremacy. Just as Naruto started his charge, the dragons just stared. Watching and waiting for the outcome, the end of the battle which they knew was about to happen.
The battle had finally ended, the stronger of the two leaders remained standing, panting from the ordeal, but still standing. But instead of the expected roar, which even the clones were expecting, the witnesses got a cry of "Woohoo!"
Naruto had won. His chainsaw katana had won him the fight, but at a cost, as happy as he was that he had won, he had had to resort to killing his opponent.
This win had resulted in a divided reaction from the dragons. Apparently Naruto and his clones had arrived hours before a majority of the eggs were to hatch. With the death of their leader, most of the dragons started to leave the cave in groups. Naruto and the clones decided not to pursue these leaving dragons. They took their hoard of treasure with them by sucking in their treasures and keeping it in their guts. Magic must help them do this Naruto had to assume. The nesting females whose eggs had hatched, as well as those who's eggs had not hatched left alongside the departing males. The females carried their young in their jaws, and claws.
The remaining dragons were all relatively young, only a few years old, but five of which were already twenty feet in length, their respective wingspans being thirty feet. Not all of them being male. Of the fifty dragons that had decided to follow Naruto, fifteen were male, while the rest were female. These females were too young to breed. Probably a year of ten too young.
Inside the now accesible caves the clones had found some clutches of eggs that remained. Each clutch that they had found contained around thirty to forty eggs. These eggs the clones sealed into storage shells that they had found, the shells being the substitute for lack of scrolls. The dragon shells that were lying around had a golden sheen to them, it appeared that the hatchlings somehow after hatching were better than alchemists at creating gold. The shells were made of pure gold. The hatchlings seemed to posses the ability to transform their egg shells into gold. The egg shells themselves also seemed to have some property in them that allowed the hatchling breath to turn them into eggs. The unhatched eggs were silver in color, but were not made out of silver, just colored that color. They had the shape of a perfect spere, with a diameter of six inches. The nest itself was not surronded by rocks, being reptiles, the gender of the dragons was determined by the temperature in which the eggs were being kept in, the rocks were not of the same color as the rest of the walls and floor, they were black, as if a flamethrower had constantly been used to heat them. Another thing that the clones had noticed about the eggs was that when they were hole they were extremely hard, harder than the rocks that made up their nests. The clones couldn't figure out how the hatchlings could break out of their shelled prisons, so they just chucked it up to some kind of magic.
While they were doing that, Naruto was figuring out how to communicate with the dragons. He tried talking to them, but that didn't seem to work out, he tried sign language, that didn't work either. He even tried shapeshifting into a dragon, but couldn't figure out how to communicate with the dragons either. Then an odd thought struck him, maybe the dragons were psychic. It was a possibility, so he tried meditating, and using his chakra tried to extend his thoughts out to the dragons. After an hour of trying, and before he decided to give up with that method, he seemed to have connected with the dragons. He knew that he did was when he saw that the dragons around him were starting to kneel on the ground.
He had nine hundred of the clones travel to headquarters with the stored eggs for preservation seals and jutsu to be placed and used on them. The clones in headquarters would have to construct facilities to take house and care for the dragons.
He and the remaining clones started to climb onto the backs of the dragons. Naruto and his clones told the dragons what they wanted them to do by use of their thoughts, although Naruto was not psychic, he expressed his thoughts using a controlled chakra pulse, which carried his thoughts.
At the top most part of the chamber a series of caves, tunnels, and large holes bringing sunlight into the chamber served as the entraces and the exits of the chamber.
Forty five of the dragons had a pair of clones riding on their backs, sitting between their shoulderblades. The five biggest ones did not have any clones on them. The clones that had no mounts were ordered by Naruto to report to headquarters to find something productive to do. Once all the smaller dragons were ready for liftoff, Naruto mounted one of the five remaining males. But unlike his clones he did not sit, he stood, he used chakra to keep in place.
He and his flight of live dragons took to the skies. Naruto suspected that one of the groups of clones that he had sent out might need some help.
Sometime after leaving the cave darkness had set in, Naruto also noticed the fight in the sky. He directed the his flight of dragons towards the fight, knowing that his clones were there. He knew this due to the sight of elemental dragons flying in the sky.
The battle of the clones versus the Rocs had gotten to the point that clones were starting to be on the losing side. The clones with the storage feathers had just gotten out of the crater. But their latest problem was that they had no way to leave the vicinity of the fight. Even with the reinforcement that was brought by the other clones groups, there was still not enough cover for clones to get away.
But Naruto and his flight of dragons had appeared not a moment too late. Rocs and his dragons were roughly the same size. If there was one thing that the rocs couldn't hope to handle, it was a flight of dragons being led by Naruto. His clone armies were in luck, their creator had arrived, and he was a handseal away from summoning forth another army's worth of more of clones. Which is exactly what he did.
These newly created clones immediately formed dragon mounts of their own and took to the air, the new goal was no longer distraction, but to temporarily ward off the rocs.
Three hours later Naruto and his clones had arrived at headquarters to rest for the rest of the day, as well as for the dragons to get acquainted with their temporary home.
Dawn had arisen on day five, the previous two days had been spent resting, as well as constructing and finishing the construction of the needed facilities for all the new animals that Naruto and his clones were to care for and train for future use, militarily, agriculturally, and for transportation purposes. This day Naruto planned on spending his day hunting for regular sized vampire bats, smilodons, and direwolves.
After leaving the safety of headquarters Naruto created six thousand clones. Two thousand clones would search the caves in the jungles for the bats, two thousand would search for the cats in the plains and prairies on the mountain, and Naruto with the remaining clones would serach for some direwolves in the jungle.
The bat hunting party made its way around the base of the mountain, after two hours of searching for a cave they had finally found one. The clones were basing their hunting strategy on the fact that Naruto had seen cats of all shapes and sizes grouped together, when hunting the migrating herd of herbivores. The clones thought that if cats could travel together in diverse prides, then who's to say that the bats could not live in the same cave together.
The clones set up some cages that they had brought with them, and placed some animal blood in buckets within the cages. Half the clones had set up a perimeter around the area where the cave entrance was located. This was so that the clones could disuade any other meat eater from interferring with the clones' bat hunt. Five hundred clones decided to stay by the cages, hidden from view and from sonar by hiding underground. The other five hundred clones decided to go into the cave and see what was inside the cave, asides from bats.
Once again, using mini-rasengans as flashlights, the clones enterd the cave in smaller groups of five. Half of the clones were walking on the ground, while the other half were walking on the walls of the cave. So far the clones had not ecountered anything aside from stalactites and stalagmites.
It was at around two in the afternoon that the clones chanced upon their first sign of the bats, they had found guano, and water.
The clones on the walls had leapt off of the walls to avoid accidentally stepping on any of the critters that live in and on the walls. But even as they walked on the ground, and in the guano filled water, the clones still had to watch their steps. There were things on the ground that could possibly be alive, and might be of use to Naruto.
It would still be a few more hours before the inside of the cave would turn into a mad house. The clones had enough time to do their exploring. But the clones were unaware of the dangers that lurked within the darkness. The caves, just as the clones should have realized as well as remembered are usually filled with things that may be harmful to the wellbeing of the clones as well as the original. In every cave Naruto or his clones find something that they want, in this case they had found their vampire bats, but they had yet to find the catch.
Watching their every move was a predator unlike any other that Naruto had so far come across. They were like chameleons in the way that their skin matched whatever their surroundings were. They had two long forelimbs, and two shorter but more muscular hindlimbs. Their maws had three rows of knife like teeth, both on the upper and lower jaws. They had no eyes to speak of, but were like bats in the sense that they used sonar to pin point the location of objects.
As the clones moved further into the cave, they started to get the feeling as if something was watching them, which made them wary, just as they should have been right from the very beginning. As they walked through the water, one group noticed something wadding towards them, but before they could act, the unknown creatures struck.
The sudden movement and distict sound of splashing alerted the rest of the clones to the presence of the unkown predator. They then powered up their rasengans til they were regular sized ones. Making the clones now more than ready to take on any threat.
In a flash their opponents quick as lightning attacked the clones, systematically taking out the ones who were at the edges of the larger group. The clones at the middle could safely say that, due to the number of teams that were being killed at the same time, there were five of these unseen things amongst them.
Two clones of each of the remaining groups of clones plunged their rasengans into the water, this created whirlpools that immediately started to suck nearby free floating, and non-pegged down objects and critters to the center of the vortex and eventually underneath them.
As the clones merged their whirlpools the other clones began to notice where the water was parted as some unknown force made its way towards the whirlpools. When the things were close enough, the clones acted, they slammed their spiral spheres into the area in which they believe the bodies of the beasts were. This move effectively got rid of their stalkers by sending them flying into the cavern wall, and exposing their appearances to the clones.
But the vicious slamming of the bodies of these unusual predators into the walls also had the added effect of causing a rumbling sound to emanate from the rest of the deeper parts of the cave. Shortly afterwards the cave started to shake.
It started to feel as though an earthquake or tremors were occuring, when in truce the cave was collapsing.
The collapse of the cave had sent out all the winged residents, most of which had gotten caught in the cages. All of which were vampire bats, the clones were lucky this time. The trouble in the cave was tame compared to the trouble that other prvious clone groups had encountered in the past. Also the group was lucky that they did not need to segregate the bats.
The second group of clones had fanned out in one of the vast plains found midway up the mountain. They had spread out to find the smilodon, and subdue them. Once found the clones would make use of genjutsus to capture the catrs. These beasts, after some genetic toying, would make good pets and attackers.
This clone group found their assignment easy, the most difficult thing that they had to do was find the blasted cats.
The third and last group led by Naruto had found a four rather large packs of the specific type of direwolf that he was after. The regular direwolves that he wasn't after were roughly twice the size of a regular wolf. But the type that Naruto was looking for, was larger than that. The direwolves that Naruto was looking for, and had found were roughly the size of a horse, at least the adults were.
Naruto knew from his past encounter with the dragons, that the only way that he would gain control of these marvellous hunters was to defeat the pack leader in combat. Luckily for Naruto he had an ace in the hole. Forming a rasengan, he quickly slammed it into the side of the wolf, killing it instantly.
The good thing about the packs that he and his clones had found was that the packs were made up of mostly impresionable youths, meaning pups and their first time mothers. The alpha males being not that old themselves. They were roughly only three times as big as a regular wolf.
After finding all of their prey for the day, Naruto and his clones headed for home.
It was the morning of day seven, the last day of freedom, that Naruto found himself face to face with his latest Master, teacher, sensei.
"Kyonshi-sensei," Naruto said, "Can we start training now?"
"Are you sure you wish to begin?" was the reply.
"Yes sensei."
"Then we shall begin," motioning to the seats in front of his desk, "Have a seat and we shall begin."