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 #1: Characters may sometimes be OOC. You have been warned.
Warning #2: I've taken some things from some myths, history, and a ninja game, I just tweaked them to suit my needs.
Lost
Chapter 10
It had already been four months since Ikkaku had joined the group. He got along splendidly well with Jiraiya, he was a writer as well, having a series of his own, but the stories he wrote about were suspense and thriller type things. He got a kick out of all the adventures that the group had, as well as some of the ones that he was party to. He kind of had an inkling of an idea as to how the men got into the messes that they did, the major ones that is. But he dared not voice such things lest they get into much more trouble than they would be able to handle. That nut job of a kami could be real sadistic at times.
The three original men benefited a lot from Ikkaku's presence. Some of the situations that Haru got them in needed a longer arm to help them out, and Ikkaku's poleaxe really helped with that.
Kiyomi still didn't get pulled into these adventures, there must have really been a divine force that protected her from anything that could really hurt her. That is not to say that she couldn't get hurt or get into a bind, its just that she never got pulled into the places that the men found themselves in. She may have been chased by dogs or cats, but not by the molten monsters, sabertooth cats, or rampaging rhinos that the men kept having to run away from.
But the first advnture that Ikkaku had experienced while travelling with the group was not caused by Haru, but by something that he did sometime in a past life, back when his horn was a lot longer than it was in this life.
Two weeks after leaving Kuma no Kuni, the party found themselves walking on the edges of Kaze no Kuni when suddenly a sandstorm came out of nowhere and hit them. The men were separated from Kiyomi, whom they would later find in Sunagakure no Sato.
The men were able to find a cave in which they were able to take shelter in. Noticing that Kiyomi was not among them, Jiraiya and Mikio glared at Haru.
"I swear!" Haru said, "I didn't do nothin dis time!"
"Well you must have done something! The Voice isn't whispering to me anymore!"
"If not done something, you must have wanted something to happen!"
"Swear, cross me heart and hope to fly! I don't wanna get lost in a desert."
"You guys," Ikkaku said, "Why are you blaming Haru for the sandstorm?"
"Simple, remember all those dangerous situations we found ourselves in?" Mikio asked.
"Yeah"
"Well, Haru somehow got us into those situations," Jiraiya added.
"Oh."
"But I swear it wasn't me this time."
The four men decided that it would be off no use to argue about whose fault it was and just walked deeper into the cave. Jiraiya noticed that they seemed to find themselves trapped in caves a lot.
"We seem to find ourselves in caves a lot."
"Don't remind me, that volcano thing was a pain in the posterior," Mikio stated.
The sandstorm outside refused to let up, so the quartet moved further into the cave, after a couple minutes of forced exploration due to boredom, the group of four found themselves in a chamber, with the only other hole in it being a hole in the ground.
Haru was hesitant to look into the hole, so the three originals decided to use this opportunity as some sort of initiation for Ikkaku.
Once Ikkaku looked over the edge and into the hole, he wished he hadn't, for down in the dakrness was a pair of eerie yellow eyes staring at him. Anger was burning within them.
Once he backed away torrents of water started to rush into the chamber coming out of the two only entrances and exits into and out of the chamber.
With so much water coming in, the Jiraiya and Mikio began forming plans and were discussing the best way to get out of the cave without having to expend so much energy. Haru sealed away his clothes except for a pair of pants. While Ikkaku strapped his poleaxe to his back and prepared to swim.
Not being with the group for so long, Ikkaku did not expect anything other than water to be their problem. But as soon as they were submerged underwater, Ikkaku knew that the pair of eyes he saw were not just figments of his imagination.
The eyes belonged to a suiryuu, a water dragon, one of five that were swimming in the water and making their way towards him, so while holding his breath he sped towards the direction of the other three men.
Upon seeing the dragons that were swimming after Ikkaku, Jiraiya grabbed the other sennin, pumped chakra to his legs and swan for it with Mikio and Haru following the pair into the hole with the five dragons hot on their heels.
The hole in the middle of the chamber was a long and winding one, and somehow the quartet was able to hold their breaths until they found an underground space in which they could pop out of the water and breath. The space was in fact a cave, with the walls made purely out of diamonds. Drilling upwards was not a good idea as the drilling might not work, and might also cause a cave-in. So the quartet had to rest a while, catch their breaths and prepare for battle.
The dragons on the otherhand failed to notice the air space, so they continued onwards deeper and further into the cave.
Once the four men had rested up they dove into the water and began their journey back to the cave entrance in which they first entered the cave in search of shelter.
But once they hit the water, like moths to a flame, the dragons just appeared there ready and waiting for Ikkaku.
These overgrown lizards were mad, hungry, and mad. The four men got ready for battle, a battle of the underwater kind.
Four on five were great odds for the dragons. So long as the water wasn't treated to electricity the dragons had the upper hand. No one can be stupid enough to send out electricity to fry everyone in the water.
It was a stalemate, not a single one moved as they had a staring contest, dragons and humans. But of course someone had to break away and officially start the battle.
While Jiraiya was secretly preparing to launch some underwater wind bullets with the air he still had in his lungs being amplified with his chakra, Mikio was preparing to send some water dragons of his own at the five water dragons, Ikkaku was coating his poleaxe with magic for sharpness, and some wind chakra for more slicing ability, Haru launched his attack.
From all five of his fingers chakra strings shot out, two strings attached themselves to each dragon, followed by a lightning bolt's worth of power. This action sent the dragons writhing in agony.
But the dragons quickly overcame or ignored the pain and were about to send out some tsunami in strength attacks, when they were pelted by pockets of air, ice dragon missiles since Mikio cooled the water he was using too much, and each of the dragons lost one horn thanks to the poleaxe. The attacks pushed back the dragons.
While the dragons were recovering, the four humans swam as fast as they could towards the entrance of the cave hoping to escape the water prison that they had found themselves in. When they finally got out of the water, all three men slammed their palms on the water's surface and sent volt upon volt of electricity. There were so many supercharged and superheated electrons in the water that sparks could be seen dancing on the surface. After that they bolted into the still raging sandstorm.
Some minutes of trudging through gale force winds that sent sand slashing at their forms, the four met were able to break through the storm and came out in the middle of a ravine, smooth walls on either side of the ravine or canyon they were in. So they decided to rest for a bit, catch their breath, and get back some of their lost chakra.
After a few minutes of waiting, Mikio started to feel cold, followed, by the two sennins, then the three men saw Haru who had run off come running towards them, he was being followed by a snow and hail storm. Snow and hail were the last things that the group expected to find in the middle of a desert. But there it was a storm of ice was fast approaching them. So they ran after Haru who had already sped away from the oncoming storm.
Not a minute had passed when they three men saw Haru running back towards the storm. They briefly wondered why he was running back, in the direction that they were running there were five dragons spitting toresnts of water out of their mouths, the tsunami of water was swiftly heading their way, so they turned around and ran.
A few meters later the four men found themselves between a rock and a hard place. They were in between the snow storm and the tsunami. Behind both unnatural disasters were five dragons. Each group looking like they wanted to have sennin for dinner, or so Ikkaku thought.
Contrary to what Ikkaku thought the dragons did not want sennin for dinner, they just wanted a certain sennin's soul to go through the process of reincarnation again, this time maybe into a worm or something.
As the water and the ice closed in, Mikio and Jiraiya slammed their palms on the ground, a giant cloud of smoke later and the four men were standing on the heads of two Boss Summons.
"JUMP!!" Jiraiya and Mikio shouted at their summons.
After the summons landed on the right side of the canyon, the water and ice froze in the canyon creating a frozen lake which did not fill the entire canyon, just a part of it. The dragons flew or climbed up onto the left side of the canyon facing the two summons and the four men.
Before charging off into battle to face ten dragons, five of ice and five of water, the Gamabunta wanted to know how they got ten dragons after their hides.
"Ikkaku Sennin as I live and breathe! So its round two, this time with the great-grandsons of Ryo-Wo!" Mukadetaishou, the boss of the Centipede Contract, said.
"Jiraiya! I'll fight with you this time, Ryo-Wo! Haha! I've wanted to fight his spawns for ages!" Gamabunta said.
Realization hit Jiraiya like a ton of bricks, so he bonked Ikkaku on his head.
"You are THAT Ikkaku Sennin?! If WE die here I'm killing YOU again!" Jiraiya shouted at Ikkaku an inch away from his ear.
Before anything else could be said a literal thunderstorm appeared overhead. Thunder and lightning, hail, snowballs, fireballs, rain, ice spears, ice balls, and the like were falling or flung in the general direction of the group by the dragons whose ancestors Ikkaku Sennin had imprisoned in a cave to stop the rain from being created, or something like that. The point is that Ikkaku did something in his past life that warranted Ryo-Wo's wrath.
The humans and summons brought up some sort of defense like Gamabunta's giant water wall and Mukadetaishou's earth wall. Ikkaku formed a dome of energy around them. Mikio shot out a chakra shield. Jiraiya added onto the water wall.
Offense met defense, and the defending ones had to push with all their might, they had to make sure that none of the attacks passed through their defenses lest others get through as well.
The four humans after realizing that they did not have enough power to sustain their defenses for much longer decided to stop their efforts and leave the defending to the summons and Ikkaku's self-sustaining dome of energy.
Then they thought up a plan, a plan that would get them out of the mess they were in without having to sacrifice one of their own.
Haru was the one to think of the best idea of them all, which they planned to immediately implement, if only Jiraiya, Mikio, and Haru could convince Ikkaku to cooperate.
Haru threw Ikkaku out of the dome, when he landed the preattached chakra strings controlled how he moved. He walked up to the edge of their side of the canyon.
"Ha! Is that all Ryo-Wo can do? Send his grandchildren to try and be get rid of me! Me? I am Ekashringa! And I laugh, HA HA HA, at your pitiful attempt to slay me! Come out of Ryuuga and face me!" Ikkaku shouted to the heavens and all that would hear.
As soon as the speech was over, the clouds parted and a dragon of inumerable scales descended unto the earth. Its horns and beard were long with age. Its claws glistened in the light provided by the heavens. Its protective scales were white. In one claw it held an orb, in the other a trident. This dragon was at least forty feet in length. It was a sight to behold. It was as if one of the kami had appeared in the world. Ryo-Wo, the Dragon King had arrived.
"Insult me will you!" his voice boomed across the sea of sand, "I am Ryo-Wo! And you are a fool! It is an honor to die by my children's children as it was to have died by the fangs, claws, and magic of my children! You foolish mortal think that you have the power to defeat me? HA! I LAUGH AT YOU!"
"Tch, you old lizard are all talk! I could kill you with my magics should I wish it. But I will not spare you this time!"
"Then you are a greater fool! HAH! If you can manage to harm me I shall let you live for a while longer. But if you are unable to do so, by any means, then you shall forfeit your life to me, and your next nine reincarnations!"
"DEAL!" Ikkaku shouted, "NOW!!"
After the signal was given, the chakra strings vanished, and the defenses were dropped, and all four humans and two summons blasted the Dragon King into his grandchildren.
Crack! The trident of the Dragon King had cracked due to the combined strength of the attacks on his person. To Ryo-Wo his weapon was an extension of himself. He was an honest and honorable being.
"Hmm, it seems you have tricked my clan once again," He said, "I shall let you live, you and your friends. Entertain me while you still breathe, for I shall now help the animated corpse screw with your futures!"
Then the Dragon King took to the skies to return to his palace under the seas, taking his grandchildren with him, along with the thunderstorm that raged overhead. Gamabunta and Mukadetaishou went home as well.
"Well," Haru said, "That wasn't so bad. At least Inari didn't join in the fun."
An hour after Haru's statement the four men were running across the desert sand, and a top the sandy dunes, this was not because they found Suna, but because they were being chased by several hundred kitsune.
"HARU!!!!!" Mikio and Jiraiya shouted.
"Thats a lot of kitsune!" Ikkaku and Haru said at the same time after glancing at the horde behind them.
And all was right in the world.
It had been a week since the kitsunes started chasing after the group of four, they had been avoiding the foxes by running and hiding, while hiding they rested and ate what food they could get their hands on, water was easy enough to come by, just summon a toad to fetch a pail of water.
It had been a week since the chase started and the group was getting tired from all the running and hiding that they had to do. They had to figure out a way to gain the forgiveness of Inari to finally be rid of the kitsune. The question was: How?
"Face off time. I got a plan!" Jiraiya said as he stopped running and whirled around to face the horde of kitsune.
The other three stopped running in shock at the proclamation and tripped on their feet and flipped over and skidded to a stop a few feet away from Jiraiya. Then they walked over to him. The kitsunes seemingly skidded to a halt themselves from the abruptess of Jiraiya's actions.
"So Ero-Sennin, what's your plan?" Mikio asked.
"This," he answered, then he dropped down into a kneeling position and shouted, "Inari! Kami of Rice! Deity of Agriculture! Forgive us for our past actions!"
The kitsune horde then parted to allow two figures to pass through. The first one was Dorotabo dragging two sacks of three sacks of rice. The second figure was another old man, this one having a beard that reached his feet, he wore a simple straw hat, and a farmer's garb.
Once the two old men were in front of Jiraiya, Dorotabo placed two of the rice sacks on top of the other, the third one he placed two feet behind the piled sacks slightly to the right of right behind them. He sat on the single sack, while the unknown old man sat on the piled sacks.
"Why should you be forgiven Jiraiya-chan?" the old man asked.
"Well, the thought was just that," Jiraiya explained, "We never acted on the thought. Plus the situation was really bad. We weren't really thinking straight at the time."
"Are you truly sorry for thinking such hurtful thoughts?"
"Yes."
"Very well," he said, "I am not Susano-O," then he waved his right hand, and the kitsune horde simply vanished.
"If you will excuse me," Dorotabo said standing up, "I have some hundred kitsune to take care off."
"So," Jiraiya said looking at the old man, "Are you some sort of representative of Inari-sama?"
"I," he said pointing to himself, "AM Inari."
"Gah!" the three others prostrated themselves before the god.
"Enough of this, you are forgiven. If you are to repeat your actions of that time, do it when none of the Enlightened Ones holds your futures in his grasp," Inari said before he too vanished.
It took the group of four three days to finally meet up with Kiyomi. But two four days later, they were separated from her again.
The four men were sucked into a gale force winds powered tornado, hours later all four men, somehow still alive found themselves not with one another.
Haru found himself on a chocolate colored hill. Ikkaku found himself up in a tree. Mikio found himself on the bank of a river. Jiraiya found himself on a small island in the middle of a lake.
Standing from his position on his back on the ground Haru looked around to get a feel of his surroundings. Around him were chocolate hills. That was probably the only thing unusual about the place, there were no monsters out to get him, or any people that he could see for that matter. So he decided to take a nap and wait for something to happen.
Two hours later Haru woke up to nothing exciting happening. Hearing his stomach growling Haru decided to go looking for some grub, be it meat or fruit or vegetable. First thing he needed to do was find some fruit bearing plants or animals, or any other living thing aside from grass.
Who knew that hunting or gathering was so hard, but all his searching finally bore some fruit, almost literally since Haru found a basket of fruits just there on the ground beside a coconut tree. Instead of climbing the tree to get a coconut, he just got some fruits from the basket and began to munch on them.
A short while later some children came running up to him, in their hands were spears, not the playthings that most children would be carrying around with them to play soldier with one another. These things were pointy and were real. So with his basket of fruit Haru ran for the hills.
The little people were throwing their spears at Haru, while shouting in a language that he could not understand, for some reason they were mad at him. It couldn't be the basket could it? So after polishing off the last fruit, Haru tossed the basket at the pursuing mob. Which did not stop them from chasing him.
A few seconds of running later an out of place big bird passed him by.
"Beep beep," it said as it passed him by.
Some spears passed over Haru's head, some passed underneath his feet as he jumped up to avoid them, some passed between his legs narrowly missing his privates. Some other things like gold and silver were thrown at Haru, which instead of avoiding them Haru caught them.
In his rush he almost ran into several coconut trees, but luckily his luck saved him all those times. While running away from certain doom for reasons unknown to him he saw on the horizon beyond some more chocolate hills another tornado, this one was blazing with fire. Once he was near enough he jumped into it.
'What's the worst that could happen?' he thought.
Ikkaku found himself up a tree, he was up in one of the higher branches. The tree for some reason was swaying in a nonexistent wind. As he looked down he saw the cause for such swaying, there was an old man that was attempting to cut down the tree, but for some reason was not making any progress.
Glad for such a thing happening Ikkaku climbed down the tree to confront the woodcutter.
"Sir," he asked pointingto the tree, "Why are you cutting down this tree?"
"Oh, hello, so you've been exiled too?" asked the old man.
"Exiled?" Ikkaku asked.
"Exiled. Thats why I'm here," the old man replied, "I cut down far too many trees you see."
"I see, are we the only two up here?"
"There is a hare and a toad up here with me," he answered, "They have yet to aid me in my pursuit of cutting down this tree, but they have been quite a bother."
"Maybe I can help," Ikkaku offered.
"Splendid."
So after some words in gibberish Ikkaku pointed his poleaxe at the saw which the old man used to try and cut down the tree.
"Oji-san, your saw will keep at it til it falls," Ikkaku told the old man, "It'll keep at it from now til that tree falls."
"Many thanks," he said, "Might you be a sennin?"
"I be," he replied, "So where are the hare and toad? I haven't had anything in my belly for a while."
"Right this way," the old man instructed, "Follow me."
The old man led Ikkaku to the hare and the toad. The hare upon seeing the hungry look in Ikkaku's eyes jumped into the sky and vanished. The toad looked at Ikkaku with pleading eyes. Eyes that did not look normal on the face of a toad.
"Me thinks, that that toad is not a toad, but another exile like yourself," Ikkaku told the old man.
"Now that I think about it that toad acts like an oni, though I've never heard of an onigama before."
"Come here little one," Ikkaku said coaxing the toad to move closer to him that he might examine it and try to reveal its true form.
The toad after some minutes of coaxing hopped closer to the two men, and just as it was less than a foot away from the old man, it was grabbed by the old man in a vice like grip. The old man after somehow being tormented for years by the toad was trying to squeeze the life out of it. But it seemed as if there was some outside force keeping it alive, in pain, but still alive.
"Hey hey hey Oji-san," Ikkaku said after grabbing the toad from the old man's grasp, "Its not an onigama, if it were you wouldn't be able to squeeze it to death anyway, you'd be dead right now."
After allowing his brain to process the logic behind Ikkaku's thinking the old man told him that he would be returning to his tree to wait for it finally be cut down, leaving Ikkaku alone with the toad.
"So little toad, what are you?" he asked the toad not expecting an answer, "Are you an onigama that does not want to harm others?"
The toad shook its little head.
"Are you another animal?"
The toad shook its little head.
"Are you a spirit?"
The toad shook its head.
"Are you some kind of exiled being?"
The toad shook its head.
"Then what are you?" he thought out loud, "Well, do you want to return to what you once were?"
The toad bobbed its head up and down.
Ikkaku then saw a swirling tower of fire heading towards him.
"Alright then," he said to the toad, "As soon as I find a way to restore you to your true form I shall. But you must swear on your soul that once I do, you shall grant me three wishes."
The toad bobbed its head up and down, nothing could be worse than staying a toad for all eternity.
As the tornado was about to mow him down, he threw the toad away from him, then he was sucked into the vortex.
Mikio found himself on the bank lying facedown on the bank of a river somewhere. Standing in front of him was a shinobi dressed in an all black garb, he had a black scarf around his neck, a mask covering the lower half of his face, and a tatoo on his forehead.
As Mikio started to stir the shinobi reached down to help him up and helped him walk to the house nearby. Mikio limped into the house and was slowly lowered down to the ground. The shinobi then got a glass of water and had Mikio drink it.
"What were you doing in the river my friend?" the shinobi asked.
"I don't know, last thing I remember was being sucked up into a tornado."
"What's that?"
"It a swirling tower of usually wind. Have you not encountered one yet?"
"I have not," the shinobi admitted, "Where do you live, maybe I can help you get home."
"I...can't remember where I live," Mikio said, "But before I got here I was travelling with some friends in search of my memory."
"You too have lost your memory?" the shinobi asked astonished.
"Indeed I have, friend, indeed I have."
"Where were you last with them?"
"Outside Sunagakure no Sato in Kaze no Kuni. Do you know how to get there?"
"I'm sorry friend, but I have not heard of such a place, you have been blown far from your homeland it seems."
"Yes, it seems so," Mikio said sounding slightly defeated.
"Well since you'll be staying with me for an indefinite time, you might as well help me around the house, as well as defend the house."
"I'm Mikio by the way, a shinobi."
"People call me Karasu, I too am a shinobi."
"Maybe I can help you with missions."
"Maybe. Something tells me I can trust you."
"Thank you."
Mikio helped Karasu with some of the missions they newly instated local lords had been sending them. Apparently Karasu's clan still existed, but he was banished for past actions against the clan. Leaving him as a clanless ninja. So Mikio adopted him, as his little brother, they then named themselves the Rosuto brothers. The deicision for their moniker was a little scroll among Mikio's sealed belongings, it was a scroll of acceptance into the Rosuto clan. The undersigned name was Rosuto Juushu.
The leader and founder of Rosuto no Kuni apparently knew of Mikio's plight and decided to give him a more solid identity. He was Rosuto Mikio, and his brother was Rosuto Karasu, their honorary brothers being Myoboku Jiraiya, Ikkaku Sennin, and Asahi Haru.
The brothers had been asked to do several missions that involved assassinations, kidnappings, thieveries, robberies, stalling, transport, hunting, reconnaissance, and some other ones that Karasu had never had to do during the civil war, like grocery shopping, weeding gardens, catching lost pets.
The brothers had to defend their hideout with their retainers, these men being deserters of their factions in the previous war, plus two yojimbo, the brothers had eight retainers all in all, Mikio granted them the clan name Okugi. The invaders of their forest home were mostly barbarians that tried to steal from them, sometimes the invaders or tresspassers were ninja from other clans who had grudges against Karasu.
With the help of Mikio and some training in more advanced Jutsu, the Rosuto tenth family, as Mikio decided to call themselves, became quite a formidable force.
Mikio had been with Karasu for more than two years, yet he did not give up the hope that he would someday be reunited with his friends. Karasu knew that that day would come, so the brothers made a pact, should they ever part, they would find each other again.
One day there was a mission request sent to the brothers, it requested the Rosuto tenth branch to travel to an abandoned castle and find out what the mysterious lights that some passing soldiers had seen coming from the place. That day it was the only mission request that was sent to them, the pay was great, it was almost too good to be true, but their honor and trust with the clan of the client forced them to accept the mission.
The ten members of the Rosuto Tenth as they were refered to as, reached the castle in record time. The abandoned castle was never retaken due to tens of failed attempts, something always happened to the people that occupied the castle, they were always forced to leave the premises for always unexplained reasons. It was found on the plateau of a medium sized mountain, it overlooked a small lake, and was surrounded by a forest. The castle walls were built to look like a five five pointed star, that is if one were to look at it from the skies. There was a second wall, and outer wall that circled the inner wall, but touched all the points of the star. All in all the two walls made were built to look like a pentagram. At each point of the star shaped wall there was a three story tower, there were several building lying around, most of them houses, shrines, and small warehouses. The castle was actually a castle town. There was only one gate in and out of the castle town. There were three levels in the castle town, or three tiers with stairs leading to the next one. Right smack dab in the middle of the third level was the seven story castle keep. The mysterious lights that the passing soldiers had seen were coming from the top floor of the castle keep.
Around the perimeter of the town there was a moat with only one bridge. Putting on a small rebreather mask Mikio dunked his head into the moat and saw lots and lots of bamboo spikes covering the moat bed. Which he informed his companions of.
So the ten men cautiously crossed the bridge. Once they were in front of the gate the ten men split into pair to investigate the town grounds, unlike most castle towns this one had its walls surround the town and not just the castle.
The two yojimbo moved off together, the two former Ichijo samurai went off together, the two former priests went off to examine the shrines that littered the town, the two former Akame swordsmen catiously moved in the direction of the castle keep, and the Rosuto brothers threw their grappling hooks at the wall and pulled themselves up on it.
The brothers treated the mission just like any other, they made use of all the tricks they knew not to be spotted, they blended in with the shadows and moved where moonlight was not present whenever possible. They moved through the second level of the town spotting no one and nothing of interest, although Karasu would on occasion stop to pick up mushroom and other small things. The frist level was where the actual town was found, the second level housing the military related things, while the third level held the keep. As the duo made their way to the nearest wall that led upwards they realized that the town was just too quiet, but they did not have the luxury of time to wonder about that, so they used their grappling hooks to once again pull themselves up the wall.
As they landed on the third level in full view of the keep, they noticed that there absolutely no signs that anyone had been near the keep in decades. Nothing was out of place, there was absolutely nothing to betray the emptiness of the castle town. There were no remnants of past occupations, there were no insects, no crickets, nothing. The sky only help the moon with no stars accompanying it, but they remembered that when they were travelling to the castle there were stars in the sky. Now there was only the moon and some thin clouds.
Against their better judgement the brothers decided to split up, Karasu would enter through the main doors, while Mikio would scale the outside of the keep, they would later meet up on the top floor.
The two former priests were going through all the shrines of the town that they could find, all that they found in or near the shrines were some paw prints, paw prints belonging to a menagerie of animals. They had seem the prints of kuma, usagi, kitsunes, inu, ookami, oushi, and others. This caused them to hold their katanas in front of them as they moved, they suspisciously watched the shadows incase these creatures decided to spring out and ambush them.
The two samurai were searching for clues and the like on the second level. They were currently in an armory filled to the brim with weapons and armor, but there was something out of place in an abandoned place, there were footsteps outside the armory. The footsteps sounded like people running. The two samurai decided to investigate the unusual occurrence, one of them peaked outside through a crack in the door, they still heard the footsteps, but they saw no one running. So they slowly crept out, eyes alert and prepared for anything.
The two swordsmen were walking around the grounds around the keep on the third level, they were following some footprints in the dirt, footprints that belonged to what appeared to be a big man, or a bear wearing boots or shoes or slippers.
The former priests found themselves backed up in a corner, the only thing between them and the predators before them were their katanas. There were bears, wolves, and tigers in front of them. They were gowling and slowly moving in on what looked like an easy kill and a free meal.
As one the beasts pounced only to meet four katanas, the yojimbo duo had spotted the two former priests being cornered by the beasts and had rushed to their aid, and subsequently jumped in just in time.
The four combatants used their unoccupied hand to punch the beasts, their feet and legs to kick at them, and their ever handy swords to, cut slash and stab at the beasts until the things were finally dead at their feet.
But before they could relax they heard clashes of steel against steel, they used what ninja training they had to jump from the first level to the second to search for the source of the metal clashing.
Moments later they spotted the two samurai who were battling a great many soldiers. The two men were standing back to back, the other defending the other's backs. There were no bodies of the fallen around, the two samurai looked to be tiring, so the four men rushed the soldiers and cut, slashed, and stabbed into them until the four reached the tired samurai.
The men paired up back to back to attack the soldiers and make sure that none of them got behind them. In any fight having the enemy get behind you is a bad thing. This back to back strategy solved that problem, but it lessened the mobility of the fighters. The fight was extreme close quarters combat. There must have been hundreds of the soldiers and only six of them. Everytime they cut down one three more would take its place.
Soon they noticed some of the soldiers were soaring over head. They heard unholy screams coming from the soaring soldiers and they flew through the air. In the direction that they were coming from were two of their companions, behind the two swordsmen was a giant bear of a man, he was running after the duo while flinging soldiers out of his way. One hand flung the soldiers out of his way, while his other hand held a very large double bladed axe.
The soldiers upon seeing this new arrival did not back down, they actually looked revitalized. Their attacks became more fericious, more aggressive, they even started flinging some of their own at the defending men.
All eight retainers had come together, they had formed a small circle, and were quickly moving away from the running giant, and they killed soldiers left and right, their will live was far greater than the intent to kill of their assailants.
Before long their running led them to the gate of the town, the had a choice between running out and leaving their lords behind to fend for themselves against this surprising horde, or stay and fight.
They chose to stay and fight.
The priests dropped their swords and started going through a short seal sequence, ending in the tiger seal, bringing their fingers up to their mouths they let fly hundreds of tiny balls of fire at the oncoming horde until they ran out of breath, then they did it again. All eight of them had some ninja training, in both the styles of their two masters.
The samurai ran towards their enemies slashing their swords in the air as they ran, their swords sent cutting winds at the soldiers taking out many of their number. They alternated between downward slashes, upward slashes, and diagonal slashes.
The swordsmen's katanas hit the ground as their hand flew a seal sequence, slamming their open palms to the ground they sent earth spikes at the enemy, impaling many in their paths.
The yojimbo sheathed their swords and used some shortcuts that they had come up with created fiery dragons out of some of the small fireballs, and made the dragons ram into many of the rushing soldiers. Their goal was to incinerate the giant.
As the samurai reached the frontlines of their enemy they hacked and slashed their way to the giant, their katanas were coated in chakra which enabled their katanas to send out wind cutters with each slash, taking out more than just the soldier they had cut into. Some of the winds had hit the giant whom they were heading towards.
The priests had soon run out of spare chakra, they were not ninja so they could not use ninjutsu for long periods of time, so they picked up their katanas and sprinted to join their samurai brothers. The two swordsmen following in their wake.
One of the yojimbos stopped controlling his dragon, which dissipated after directly hitting the giant three times, he ran at the now out in the open giant, his brother following shortly behind him.
The eight men decided that the giant was the biggest threat and concentrated on him. They hacked and slashed at him until they moved as one, the finishing blow was a combined slash at the neck of the giant.
They jumped away to watch as the giant fell to the ground dead. His body and the bodies of all the still standing soldiers fading into noneexistence.
Something was definitely wrong, bodies don't just vanish. They lie still.
The retainers knew that their masters may need their help so they used what chakra they had left to spare and made their way towards the keep to meet up and aid their masters.
Karasu had encountered many traps, that although they were old, were still very deadly, all the training that he and his clansmen had been doing had paid of, he sported only a few small scrapes, but overall he was fine. He was on the second to the top floor of the keep when he encoutered his first problem. The room that he had just entered was filled with all sorts of soldiers, there were so many of them that he decided not to count them, before trying to talk to them they moved as one and attacked him. Luckily his retainers were not too far from him, Karasu having disabled all the traps that he had encountered had made taken him some time which allowed his retainers to catch up to him.
The nine men then hacked and slashed their way to the stairs, upon reaching it they bolted upwards. Higher ground was always a good thing.
Due to the fighting Karasu had sustained some nasty, but not life threatening, injuries as had his men. They sported cuts, bruises, and other things. But they had made it to the top floor.
While the other nine were off doing whatever it was they were doing Mikio had reached the top floor and entered through the only window in the floor. He was met with the sight of an old man wearing the robes and kimono of a daimyou, who bade him to sit across from him. He was offered some tea and some sweets.
Mikio decided not to insult the daimyou, so he sat down and accepted the offered refreshments.
"I heard of your great deeds young lord," the daimyou said.
"My deeds?" Mikio asked confused.
"Yes, how you have taken in nine strays, and accepted them into your family."
"Nine strays?"
"Your brother in name and in blood and you have done, and those eight loyal retainers of yours."
"Yes, they are my family here," he confirmed.
"I also am aware of your plight, one of two I believe. One your memory, the other your friends."
"Yes, but..." Mikio asked, "How did you know of those things?"
"I have many eyes and ears everywhere. But most of all you have helped one of my children find his will to live, his own Will of Fire."
"You know of Hi no Kuni? Of the Elemental Continent?" Mikio desperately asked.
"Yes, I have been there before. One of my crows lost his ability to fly. You have taught him how to spread his wings again. I thank you for this."
"Uhm...you are welcome, sir."
"Now, the mystery of the flashing lights is what brought you here, yes?"
"It is."
"Then I shall tell you what those soldiers on the road had seen that night," the daimyou said, "It was the arrival of a vortex of fire, it came to take you back, but I made it leave, you still had much to do. That request is a month late. I made sure of it."
"What?! Why?! If you knew my plight why did not let it stay and wait for me? Why?" Mikio said as he grabbed the daimyou by his robes.
"Calm down and I shall tell you," he calmly said.
So Mikio put him down, and waited as patiently as he could. The daimyou was taking his time sipping some tea and eating some sweets before explaining his actions to the shinobi.
"You were not ready to leave, had you left you would have regretted leaving your family. So I let you spend some more time with them, create more happy memories with them. Tell me, were you that eager to leave them then?"
"No..." was the quiter answer that was given.
"Now, you are ready to leave, but do not fret you will see them again. In a month's time after you have left the lands will shift and these lands as you know them will merge with Elemental, ten years shall pass for the Rosuto Tenth family before you see each other once again."
"W-why so long?"
"Because that is the way it was meant to be, recall the most recent continent-wide earthquake that you have felt."
"..."
"Have you recalled it?"
"Yes, no one died during that time..why what is so special aside from that fact?" Mikio asked.
"It was when Yomi no Kuni and her brothers merged with Elemental."
"I see," he decided to just believe.
"The window that is behind you is now a gateway to the vortex, exit this castle through it and continue your quest. We shall see each other again, as I will grant your family a gift, my daughter shall bind your family to mine for all time, and you and yours forever more shall have my favor. I have enjoyed my time with you. I bid you farewell, my new friend," the daimyou said before he, like the soldiers, vanished, this time before Mikio's very eyes.
The door to the room he was in exploded inwards, Mikio was startled and almost drew his naginata, but stopped at the sight of his brother. He went to hug his brother and the other eight, then walked back to the window.
"My brother I will miss you, you and the eight. But this is not goodbye, I shall see you all again in ten years time. I still have my memory to find, my past to discover, and my Will of Fire to rekindle," he said, then he opened the window and jumped out before Karasu could say anything. In a blazing burst of spiraling flames Mikio was gone, and what once was ten now were nine.
Three days after Mikio had left them, the daimyou went to the Rosuto Tenth's hideout. Being a daimyou with an escort of samurai with him, Karasu graciously and honorable let them enter his humble home. His retainers were in running distance should he need their aid.
"I know that you are wondering who I am."
"Yes I am," Karasu confirmed, "I am also wondering why you have come here and how you have found this place."
"I am the master of the castle you invaded. I am the one who sent you the mission to investigate the mysterious lights. I am also the one who last spoke to Rosuto Mikio."
"What?! But you weren't in the room when we got there!"
"You aren't the only one with powers," he stated, "I have come here to fulfil a promise to your brother that I made to him before his departure," he them took out a scroll and handed it over to Karasu.
"What is this?" Karasu said while looking at the unopened scroll.
"It is the written contract of my promise to your brother. A better life for you and your retainers is written within. Read it after I have left, it is as much a promise as it is a challenge," the daimyou said before he stood up and walked out and vanished.
In the scroll were written instructions, simply put they told Karasu that in order for him to see his brother again he had to kidnap the daimyou's youngest living daughter and marry her in secret. After doing this he had to show the daimyou proof of the deed by entering the castle with his then wife, both of them unseen. If he does not do as the scroll instructed, then the armies of the night would rampage throughout the land unchecked and uncontrolled, giving the Shinigami more souls to collect, send to heaven or hell, or to devour. The name of the daimyou was written at the bottom of the scroll, along with a short message saying that Karasu had until the end of the month to present proof of doing the deed. The daimyou's name was Shikyo Kouji, the ninth Daimyou of Yomi, the ninth Daimyou of Jigoku, and the ninth holder of the title Tsukiyomi. His daughter's name was Shikyo Kagura.
"Akira! Daichi! Fumio! Hajime! Junichi! Tadao! Hisao! Hisashi! Get in here! NOW!"
At the roar of their master the four Okugi rush to the main living space of the Rosuto hideout. They kneel before their master and await his commands.
"Akira, Daishi, the two of you are to secure a priest, a Taoist if at all possible."
"Hai!" Akira and Daichi answer before blurring out of existence.
"Fumio, Hajime, gather some kitchen supplies, you are to prepare a wedding feast."
"Hai!" both men blur out of existence to do as the are told.
"Junichi, Tadao, get me the best bridal kimono you can."
"Hai!" they too vanish to do as they're told.
"Hisao, you clean up the hideout. Hisashi, you coordinate with everyone."
"Hai!" Hisao said before he too vanished.
"Karasu-sama, if I may ask..."
"Ask away Hisashi."
"What is going on?"
"I am to kidnap a princess and marry her in secret."
"Why would you do that Karasu-sama?"
"To see Mikio-aniki again, and to build up our clan."
"Hai, I shall take my leave now," then Hisashi bows to his master and calmly walks out of the hideout.
'No time to waste, I'll do it tonight' Karasu said to himself.
Once again Karasu was in front of the gate, but this time there were guards. The castle town was in Yomi, a part that the Shinigami gave to Tsukiyomi, who passed it on to his descendants.
Instead of passing through the gate, Karasu just repeated what he did the last he went into the castle. But this time since his aim wasn't at the top, he actually had to search the whole keep for the daughter of its lord.
'Well these things don't always look the same on the inside,' Karasu mused in the shadows, 'Might as well start from the bottom and work my way up.'
So he moved some chakra onto his hands and feet and walked into the keep while the guards were looking away, then he stuck himself to the ceiling. It is a known fact that not that many people bother to look up. That is how he did his search, he crawled on the ceiling starting from the bottomost floor, which was the dungeon.
So far he hadn't encountered anyone, not a soul was in sight. Not even a rat or a mouse. Nothing. It was like that night. Karasu feared that should be move up to the floor above he'd be greeted by lots of soldiers who he'd have to get rid of, life, bodies, everything.
While he was making his way to the stairs he noticed a door that he hadn't noticed before, his dark musings must have triggered some kind of mechanism that recvealed such things. As he thought of having to kill more people, his mind filled itself with all the many ways he knew to kill people. His bloodlust grew, but it was uncontrolled.
His curiosity got the better of him, so he crept silently and cautiously to the door. Pressing his ear to the door his dark thoughts vanished as he heard someone inside, the breathing was slow so it was possibly someone sleeping. He had to be thorough in his search so he put up a barrier around him to silence any noise that his movements or the door's would make and opened the door. Inside was a girl with long red hair, she opened her eyes for a second then closed them again, she had light brown eyes. She had a cute round face, full pink lips, and based on how her blankets hugged her figure.
'My oh my, what a figure! GAH! What kinds of thoughts are these! I've been spending waay to much time around Akira and Daichi!'
He dropped down to the floor beside the bed, and looked the sleeping beauty over, he even pulled off the blanket, what he was met with was the sight of her naked body, it wasn't cold so she wouldn't feel anything, there was no hidden breeze either.
She rolled over and faced the wall, her back to him.
'Lets see, the scroll said that she had a skull birthmark on the back of her neck.'
So he parted her hair and saw the mark.
'Found you.'
So he placed the forced sleep jutsu on the girl, thenwrapped her up in the blanket. With one arm around her, he formed a single halfseal, channeled some chakra and in his place was a Chishio Bushin that quickly used transformed himself into the the girl, the transformation was based solely on the memory of his creator which was passed to him via the chakra link.
Karasu, with the girl in his arms, ran like a bat out of hell in the direction of the Rosuto hideout.
Once he got there, he laid the girl down on a futon in the main room of the hideout. His retainers lived in small tree houses in the trees that surrounded his back garden.
As he sat down beside the sleeping beauty, his retainers gathered in front of him, Hisashi reported that all the preparations had been completed. The ceremony would take place in the garden, the traps and whatnot had already been moved. The wedding feast would occur there as well.
"Use Jutsu if you must, but get her ready for the ceremony."
"Hai," they answered.
A few minutes later using some chakra strings Akira and Daichi were controlling the now dolled up Kagura, and made her stand before the officiator of the wedding ceremony.
At the last part as the two were about to be joined as one, she woke up from her jutsu induced slumber. Her body would not respond to her commands, her body refused to move for her, she looked around, she saw the priest, the retainers, and beside her, he saw a young handsome man dressed in ceremonial a kimono, then she noticed that she too was in a similar garb. But before she could do anything or say anything the priest pronouced then to be joined for all eternity as husband and wife.
Kagura was in shock, total and utter shock, she was married and she didn't know how it had happened. She was supposed to marry some great and powerful lord, her father made her stay in the room in the dungeons so that no other man may look upon her, only her husband was supposed to see her, and now she was married to some unknown man, with a handful of men. He didn't look like a lord, he didn't look powerful, he just looked so ordinary, except maybe for the fact that he was quite handsome.
After the ceremony and the wedding reception was over, Kagura was carried bridal style by Karasu to the main room, which served as the bedroom, of the hideout. He lay her down on the futon. But before he did anything to her, he heard some sounds from out in the garden.
"Stay here," he told her, then he walked out the backdoor.
The garden had been transformed back to what it originally was, a death trap for any would be tresspassers. The retainers were in position, all of them holding bows with arrows already nocked. Karasu stood on a platform that was a good three feet higher than his men. He to had a bow in his hand and an arrow already nocked.
The sounds of the footsteps of the tresspassers were getting closer by the second. Suddenly out of the tree line were barbarians, ten of them at a time.
The defenders let their arrows fly, nine out of the ten were killed. Then another wave, and another nine were killed, followed by another and another, until the defenders had to drop their bows and arrows and bring out their blades. There were now too many of them to take down with a few arrows. So the nine men rushed the intruders and killed each and every one of them with one strike each.
The door that led to the garden had been opened from the inside, in front of it stood Kagura. She watched the bloodless massacre, bodies littered the garden, yet no blood was spilt. Then above her a shadow blocked out the sun, as she glanced up she saw that the shadow was a body, the body of the barbarian chieftain. The body was still, as if it stopped in the middle of movement. Then istead of attacking her, as she was thinking, it fell backwards and into one of the pits that littered the garden. Behind the pit that it fell into was her husband, Karasu.
"I thought I told you stay inside?" he asked her.
"Y-y-you d-d-did...I was just curious," she managed to stutter out. She had never seen so much death in her life. The only fights that she had ever seen were those between the soldiers and retainers of her father. This was the first time that she had seen an actual battle.
His movements were too fast for her untrained eyes to track, a few seconds after she replied she was back in the house, on the futon lying down, with him leaning over her form.
"Next time I tell you to do something, you do it. Got it?"
"Hai," she whispered.
"Good, now, I admit, I've never done this..."
"Done what?"
"Consumated a marriage..."
"..."
"Who am I kidding, I've never been married before, but the act can't be so different from those other times."
"..." Kagura couldn't think of anything to say, she just blushed, everything afterwards happened in a blur. When she awoke the next day she was wrapped in a blanket alone in the room, the memories of her wedding night were very fuzzy.
The backdoor opened to allow Karasu back into the room, in one hand was a tray of food, while the other was occupied with closing the door.
"Ahh, good. You're awake," he said as he saw her sitting form, he then placed the tray before her.
"Eat up," he said, "I am sorry that I had to kidnap you to marry you, but it was a nescessary step in finding my brother."
"So..I am a tool, a means to find your brother?"
"Yeah, nothing romantic at all. But even I must admit, you are beautiful."
"..." she decided not to say anything else, no words of forgiveness or anything of that sort. It wasn't likely that she would ever see her father again.
"By the way, in case you haven't figured it out, my name is Karasu, and you are now Rosuto Kagura, a member of the Rosuto Tenth Family."
This information caught her attention, then she was now a part of a family, a clan that was even more talked about then most samurai and ninja clans. She realized that those tall tales that some of her father's soldier spoke of were real.
'But if I am married to one Rosuto brother, then what happened to the other one?' she wondered to herself.
"Uhm...Karasu-sama, may I ask a question?"
"You already have. Feel free to ask another."
"What happened to your brother?"
"Oh, he went home, to his home. You know I actually thought that you were some caged bird. But by asking that question, I realize that you are not."
"Huh? What do you mean by caged bird?"
"Oh, its just that you were in a room in the dungeons when I found you."
"Oh, Otou-sama made me stay there two months ago, he said that he didn't want any other man to see me anymore, since he had promised me to some powerful lord," she said, "But since I'm married to you, that doesn't matter anymore."
"Akira, one of my retainers brought you some kimonos last night, pick one and ready yourself," he told her, then he stood up and walked to the backdoor.
"Why?" she asked.
"Tonight, we will see your father," he told her as he walked out.
Karasu didn't shut the door, Akira did after entering.
"I am Okugi Akira," he introduced himself, "I'll just leave the supplies that you will need in order to look your best."
"Look my best? For what?"
"For when Karasu-sama presents you as his wife to Kyuudaime Tsukiyomi-sama."
"Who?"
"It doesn't matter right now, but he is the current literal God of the Moon."
"WHAT?!" she shouted panicked, the only way she knew of meeting a god was to die or something like that.
"Don't worry about it. Mikio-sama, Karasu-sama's brother, explained it to us before he left," he informed her, "The gods and goddesses are immortal, but they too may grow tired of their responsibilities, so they appoint mortals to act as them, or govern in their stead. Tsukiyomi-sama still exists, but he has chosen his descendants to govern the moon for him."
"That sounds like something Otou-sama once told me."
"Good, now get dressed, you have until sunset."
Come nightfall Karasu found himself once again outside the gate to the castle town ruled by Shikyo Kouji. He needed to get in as stealthily as he did the last time. He would not get caught.
He tossed up his grappling hook, then he climed up the wall. He would not use his chakra if he coud help it. Somehow he knew that Kouji had a way of detecting the usage of it this time around.
After reaching the second level, he made his way to the wall that would lead him up to the third level, then he used his grappling hook to climb up.
Just like the first time he had seen the keep place there were flashing lights coming from the top floor.
'Looks like thats where I gotta go...Wonder if the door was fixed' he wondered to himself.
So he once again used his grappling hook, this time to pull himself up or help him climb up the outside of the keep. In record time he was by the only window on the top floor of the keep.
'I have a feeling that my blood clone hasn't been found out yet...' he wondered, then he peeked in to confirm that indeed his clone was still in existence.
There was no better time then the present, he smashed his way into the room, he actually succeeded in surprising Kouji. Before anyone else in the room could act, he pulled out his naginata and shoved it into the gut of his Chisio Bushin. Instead of the illusion of someone dying the clone was surrounded by smoke as soon as Karasu pulled out the blade.
When the smoke cleared Kagura and the eight Okugi appreared in the room.
"How's that Yuurei-sama?" Karasu asked Kouji.
"Impressive. Yes, well, at the end of the month I shall fulfil my end of the deal, after your coronation ceremony the ground shall shake and from the heavens a light shall bring these lands together with Elemental," he stood and walked closer to the newlyweds, "What will you name your future land?"
"Yami no Kuni, the Land of Darkness," was Karasu's immediate reply, as if he were possesed.
"A land of perpetual darkness, nice, I like it. A place where only the moon's light brightens the sky, with the absence of the light of stars, and the clouds adding a little beauty to the skies. I like it."
"If I may," Daichi said, "It fits our natures, but what of the other lands?"
"We shall let a higher power deal with that. Elemental is said to be a continent so vast that not all of it had been explored, and we shall be a part of the region that has yet to be explored."
"Otou-sama, are you saying that I am married to the man you promised me to?" Kagura asked her father.
"Yes, although the promise had yet to be made at the time," he said as he smiled at her.
He was rewarded for his efforts by having a fist making contact with his head, which sent him crashing down to the ground.
"WHAT WAS THAT FOR??" Kouji shouted as he got back on his feet.
"I don't like being used for someone else's enjoyment," Kasaru stated.
"Hmph, blame my actions on your brother, he brought about this karma on you," Kouji said as he dusted himself off, "The Karma has passed, deal with it, at least I didn't send a flock of crows to attack you."
After having said that Kouji left the room, to speak with his retainers and such about the preparations thathad to be made, as well as berrate his soldiers and hired help for letting Karasu in so easily.
After waking up from his vortex of winds induced sleep, Jiraiya found himself on an island in the middle of a massive lake. His island was right smack dab in the middle of the lake, the lake was so wide and so long that Jiraiya could not see the shoreline.
How did he know that it was a lake, well right beside where he woke up was a sign that read "Welcome to the Middle of the Lake!".
Being in the middle of a lake meant that no matter which direction he went, he would get to shore all the same, the time it would take to travel would be the same no matter what direction he moved. Having nothing else on the island asides from the sign, since he couldn't find anything else, he decided to run on the surface of the lake.
What the Ero-sennin did not know what that if he had pumped some chakra into the sign it would turn into a speed boat. But alas, it was his loss, that his imagination was not creative enough.
As he ran on the water's surface he failed to realize that there were things in the water following his movements. These things had encountered a similar sapien in the past that had disturbed the tranquility of the lake. These things wanted a piece out of the person who had disturbed them before, but since they couldn't get to that person, this unsuspecting one would be their object for them to exact their revenge upon.
The creatures at the forefront of the underwater charge were great beasts with four flippers for limbs, its skull resembled that of a crocodile's, it had an elongated and cylindrical snout, its tail resembled a sea snakes' tail, and it was roughly more than forty nine feet in length. These big ass hell monsters of muscle mass were heading Ero-sennin's way.
Jiraiya thought that since he was stuck in the middle of no where, he would have some fun, running for as long he had been running was great for blood circulation and all that, but it got boring, he hadn't even encountered one monster yet. So he decided to act like a toad and hop along the surface of the water. His first jump allowed him to avoid the massive maw of the tylosaurus that tried to take a big life threatening bite out of him. After landing he took a quick glance behind him and the creature.
'To think is to create....WHY DID I HAVE TO THINK MONSTER IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?!?!?!?!!'
He immediately went into battle mode, he couldn't afford to stay still in the water, so he hopped away farther and farther from the middle of the lake, and closer and closer to the shore. It took him three precious seconds to land and hop away, in the span of that time another tylosaurus would snap its jaws in the space that the super pervert had just vacated.
It had gotten to the point where there were other monstrous creatures whose heads, and sometimes bodies, started to break the water's surface in an attempt to eat the super pervert.
After a few hours of constant hopping and dodging certain doom, Jiraiya spotted the shore. He also spotted a towering vortex of spiralling flames.
'If a vortex of wind brought me here, then that solitary tower of flame is bound to take me somewhere else..' he thuoght to himself.
As he hit the water from his latest stop he floored it, he ran for the shore with all the speed that he could get his feet on. As he blasted towards the tower of power there were several sonic booms that could be heard, which the creatures underneath the surface felt through the shockwaves that were sent beneath the waves.
They hesitated in their chase, which was perfect for Ero-sennin, since it allowed him to jump into the vortex unhindered.
Having lost the chance to get a life sized bite out of their prey, they turned on each other.
Hiding up in the trees that litter the shorelines are a couple hundred blond haired teens, they watched the beasts tear into one another, as if they were studying their movements, their attacks, and how they tried to take out that blasted Ero-sennin.
The four men were spat out of the whirling tornado of scordhing flames in front of the main gate of Kiba no Kuni's Daimyou's residence.
The moon had taken his place in the sky, the four men found Kiyomi, once again by a campfire, with all their tents and whatnot encircling the campfire. They didn't bother asking how she managed to convince the daimyou to let her set up camp there, all that mattered was that she was there.
After finishing their dinner they each went to a separate tent, and fell asleep. Jiraiya still slept in a separate tent from Kiyomi.
In the span of the first month after Ikkaku joined the group, the men had experience three brand new large scale adventures. First was the fiasco with Ryo-Wo, the second was the chase ending with the forgiveness of Inari, and the third was the being sucked up in a tornado and split up. Haru ended up somewhere in the Philippines, Ikkaku landed on the moon, Mikio landed in Japan, and Jiraiya landed in a massively massive lake with lots of things that wanted to eat him.
The two months after that the four men kept finding themselves in various caves being chased by a number of different creatures, ranging from ghosts, molten monsters, kappas, kitsunes, dragons, the occasional goblin, ushi-oni, an assortment of oni, a couple of insulted gods, Touken, and the like.
Three months and three weeks into their journey as a group of five, the men actually got lost in a supermarket in Na no kuni. Kiyomi had opted to stay at the hotel and wait for them there, it wasn't like the men would get lost in a supermarket.
But lo and behold the men did get lost in a supermarket. They found themselves a few hours into their shopping in a forest inside the grocery, how it got in there, they didn't want to know, how to get to the cashier is what they wanted to know. There were directions everywhere, but none that pointed them to the exit.
They walked for hours and hours more, searching for anymore signs of life until they came across a skeleton of a man one hand gripping a shopping cart handle.
It wasn't some elaborate genjutsu to make customers go bonkers, it wasn't some prank to get customers to lower their guards so that some dude could steal their money or something, it was far worse, it was real.
Apparently the four men were still in the vegetable and fruits section of the grocery turned forest. How did they know this, well Haru had kicked a pumpkin that grew legs and started to chase them. Ths pumpkin was followed by some radishes, a couple dozen apples, three carrots, a pineapple, a pear, a half dozen peaches, fifteen lemons, a crate load of bananas, and a bunch of othe giant fruits and vegetables. These green produce were calling for the four men's blood. They were somehow shouting things about revenge against he planteaters, vengeance for the other plants that met their fate on the plates of salad eaters, and other such plant related nonsense, usually shouted by extreme environmentalists, but these weren't environmentalists, these were honest to godness walking, talking, produce.
The four men managed to shake the things after a few more hours of running here, there, into a wall, and everywhere.
But just as they were about to relax and let down their guard, they were assulted by the meat section of the grocery jungle, yes no longer a forest but a jungle, the meat and everything that came from animals converged on one another and formed a giant meat monster, in the shape of a giant bull, well several giant bulls made out of meat and other animal related food.
So the four men once again ran here, there, through the wall again, and everywhere, which landed them in front of the produce. So they did as before and ended up face to face with the giant meat bulls. Then they repeated the process over and over again until they could run no longer, not because they didn't have the energy to do so, but because they were right smack dab in the middle of the mutant produce and the giant meat bull. These are the moments or times that they wished they were Akimichis or something like those big boned Konoha-nins.
The sides charged at the four men, the only thing they could do was duck once the two sides actually pounced. Meat met plant, it was a clash of the titans of the food world. Beef, pork, chicken, and fish ganged up on the carrots, lemons, watermelons, and cabbages. The other veggies and fruits teamed up against the other meat and fish related foods. Blood, guts, and produce were flying everywhere. It turned into a battle royale of flavor once the herbs and spices joined in the fray. It was as wacko as jacko in that place, heads were rolling as eggs went cracking.
It was quite a mess, the four men just sat there on the floor, mesmerized by the food. The only thing that was missing was all the junk food.
It was after that thought that giant chocolate monsters and other monsters made of sugary goodness jumped into the mess. Their sweet and delicious goodness were overwhelming the competition. Their combined unhealthy filth was too much for either side. So the meat and plant sides joined forces to battle this healthless foe. It was a battle of breakfast, lunch, and dinner rolled into one. Appetizers, the main course, soup, and desert were battling for dominance.
But the one to rule them all will a soggy fist was the final entrant into the fray, the Instant Ramen had arrived. The prepackaged near godliness of the foods had arrived, with it came the bowls of boiling water, ready to boil out the nutrients of those healthy foods in not time, the champion of healthless cuisine had arrived. In the end the junk food came out on top. The giant insant ramen bowl threatened to come for them if they ate anymore health foods for the rest of their stay in Na no Kuni.
After that proclamation, the four men ran through the maze of winding aisles until they finally found themselves infront of the cashiers, behind them were forty shopping carts loaded with junkfood. For the sake of their continued existence in Na no Kuni they offered up what money they had, and a few signed copies of their books, to buy the junk food and appease the champion of the junk food.
Little did they know that the Supermarket or grocery that they had been shopping in was owned by Rosuto Younen, the company. After the four men left all the mutated food vanished to reveal several blonds, all with kitsune like grins plastered on their faces.
'Punishment for leaving me...he he heh...thanks Zombie-sensei' thought a thousand plus year old Konoha-genin, officially he was a genin, although he hadn't seen or even been in Konohagakure no Sato for centuries.
Once all the junk food had been sealed up in storage scrolls the four men made their way as fast as their little legs could carry them back to the hotel to check out of it and drag Kiyomi out of Na no Kuni as fst as they could, and since she was usually slower than them, Jiraiya grabbed her breasts and...well...lets stick to the chest area shall we...which caused weeks of dedication and hardwork to vanish, but it also had the effect on Kiyomi that all four men were wanting to happen, she ran after them like she was possesed by a demon bat that had just escaped the clutches of hell or something like that or even something that was faster than that.
Of course once she caught up with the men, Jiraiya had to plaster a big chunk of ice to his privates to get them to heal. The other men just looked like mummies for the remainder of the week.
It had been four months since Ikkaku had joined the party, it had been twelve months since Jiraiya last saw Naruto, his apprentice, it had also been twelve months since the two, Master and Apprentice, had left the gates of their beloved Konohagakure no Sato. It was exactly one year. How did Jiraiya know this...well...
"Ero-sennin, the Voice says dig a hole in the ground with your bare hands til your fingernails start to bleed and eventually fall off one by one, once you have run out of fingernails you should find a wooden chest. The Voice says to get that chest of the ground using your teeth. Once the chest is out of the ground you are to jump up and down three times and shout to the world that you are gay and...." Mikio paused in his giving Jiraiya instructions, "Scratch out that shout to the world bit. Skipping that minor little detail, you should then open the chest by kicking it open, and making sure that the lid hits Haru's head before he does something that will get Tsukiyomi mad at us."
"Uhm...Hai!" Jiraiya decided to just get it over with. The last time he refused to do something like this due to Mikio telling him to, Haru got a dozen bears to chase the three men round and round the campsite until Kiyomi kicked one in the balls for disturbing her sleep.
After temprarily sending Haru into a coma, Jiraiya peered into the chest to find some baby pictures of Kiyomi, and a scroll addressed to the him.
It read: "A year ago to the day, you left your village with one student, three months into your journey you left your companion. Three months back you almost found him again. Twelve months to this day you left and lost, and still haven't found. Don't worry, you still have two more years of separation. Good luck."
It wasn't signed by anyone, but at the bottom of the main message was a smaller one.
Which read: Mikio, you tell that Voice of yours he is so screwed. Ero-sennin, you do anything to Kiyomi that has anything to do with your nickname and I shall personally have you face the Kyuubi no Yoko. To Ikkaku Sennin, Ryo-Wo sends his regards.
That was all the scroll said. After reading it several times, the scroll got annoyed at how it was being handled and decided to voice its thoughts.
It flew out of the hands of whomever was holding it and self-origami'd itself into a mouth.
"I've been manhandled by men far perverted than you four, and I must say that they were far better at treating an enchanted piece of paper than you four will ever be."
Then it exploded into a thousand pieces just to show the men how displeased it was at how they treated it. Then the pieces of paper, ash, and ink, were carried away by the wind to the shadows within a nearby cave.
'Two more years?!?!?!?! Here's hoping I find Naruto before I die...I wonder what's the color of Kiyomi-chan's undies today...' his lecherous grin told Kiyomi who was watching the super pervert more or less the train of his thoughts.
Normally she wouldn't really mind, but it was that time of the month. Jiraiya, and the other three by relation, found themslves flying through the air at breakneck speeds.
Haru's head landed in a hornet's nest while his other head went through a bee hive. Mikio landed face first in some bear dung, his hands in muddy water. Ikkaku found himself lying on his back in a pit filled with monitor lizaards. Jiraiya, well...somehow landed face first in the middle of Tsunade's forehead, the one of the Hokage monument.
They all managed to get back to camp in record time, it was their turn to hunt and gather. The consequences of not completing that mission were dire. It was either not get there in record breaking time, or eat the twenty cart loads of junk food that still remained.
There was just something about junk food that gave them the creeps.