Chapter 38
It had been a few hours by now, and I was still running. I didn't really feel exhausted, in fact, the more I ran, the more energy I felt.
I didn't know how far the village was, but I already knew I'd come too far to turn back now. No one knows where I'm going or that I've even left, so I need to be extra careful not to hurt myself.
I suddenly stop and look around. "Where the hell am I going?" I ask. Sure I was still on the dirt road in the middle of the forest, but I had absolutely no idea where I was going. I probably should've thought about this first. But I can't go back now, all this time would have just been wasted. Upon looking at the sun directly above me, I couldn't tell which direction was North or East. But I did know one thing, I was getting hungry. Unfortunately, I didn't consider this factor, so I had no food on me, and I was still in the middle of the forest. "Great.. heroine Setsuki died of hunger.." I say to myself, then laugh. "That sounds so silly." I continue to walk along the dirt road, hoping I would find a small dango shop or something.
[Meanwhile]
"No, she's not here. She went out training early as she normally does, lad." Takashi says.
"Oh. So she's been training since early?" Daisuke inquires, then smiles. "She's so full of determination! It's inspiring!"
"Is she still at the training vicinity?" Susumu inquires, blocking out Daisuke's ranting.
"Possibly. She hasn't returned home yet. Who knows, maybe that Lee kid found her, they've probably lost track of time, knowing them." Takashi says with a chuckle.
"... That slick bastard.." Daisuke grumbles under his breath.
"Right. Well thank you sir!" Susumu says. "Come on Romeo." Susumu grabs his teammate by the sleeve of his shirt and begins dragging him to the training vicinity. Takashi chuckles to himself and goes back inside.
"Hey, Lee." Susumu calls. Lee looks over his shoulder at the pair and blinks.
"Can I help you?" Lee inquires.
"Have you seen Setsuki?" Susumu asks. Daisuke kept glaring at Lee.
"Setsuki-san? No, not today. I am sorry. Did something happen?" Lee inquires, now getting a serious face.
"Not that we're aware of, but we haven't seen her all day." Susumu says.
"YOU SLICK BASTARD YOU KNOW SOMETHING!" Daisuke scowls.
"Daisuke!" Susumu gushes. Lee flinches slightly.
"I-I apologize.. I have not seen Setsuki-san at all!" Lee exclaims.
"Hmph!" Daisuke storms away grumbling.
"Ngh.. idiot.." Susumu groans, frowning at his teammate. "Do you have any idea where she'd be then?"
"N-not a clue. S-sorry." Lee replies, giving a quick bow. Susumu sighs.
"Fine.. thanks anyway." He says before leaving to continue searching.
I sigh. The road ahead seemed to stretch on forever, and the scenery never changed. I look up at the tree tops, beginning to be fascinated in how tall they actually are.
As the day went on, I my mind began to wonder back home. I wondered what everyone would be doing now. I still had no idea where I'm going, but then I just thought of the best idea!
I grin and bite my thumb and do a few hand signs. "Summoning Jutsu!"
Keahebi poofs within a smoke cloud. He looks around, I swear he's gotten even bigger, just the slightest bit.
"Keahebi!" I exclaim, making the snake's head snap to my direction.
"Ssssetssssuki... why have you ssssummoned me?" He inquires.
"I need your help!"
"... With..?"
"I need to find Orochimaru's base!" I say, making his head flinch backwards.
"You want to do what?" He gushes.
"I gotta! To save Kabuto-kun!" I exclaim.
"No! You cannot go there!" He says.
"Why not?"
"It'sssss dangerousss!"
"I know! I'm prepared though!"
"What if Lo- Orochimaru findssss you?"
"Then I'll.. I'll fight him! I'll beat him up!" I say.
"Don't talk sssso big. You cannot defeat a Sssannin!"
"I gotta try! Please Keahebi! You gotta show me the way!" I plead.
Keahebi fell silent, as though pondering. After a moment, Keahebi sighs through his nostrils. "I will guide you there... but you cannot expect me to help you fight Lord- er.. Orochimaru. I refussse to fight a Sssannin."
I nod. "Yosh! That's all I need! Thanks Keahebi, you're the best!"
Eventually, nightfall came. I was still following Keahebi. I thought we'd never leave the forest, it seemed to go on forever.
"Nnngh.. my feet hurt... I'm starving.." I groan, my shoulders slumped.
"Sssstop complaining. If you want to get there, then we mussstn't ssstop now."
I frown. "How much further is it?"
"If we keep going during the night, no breaksss.. we sssshould be at Otogakure by midday." Keahebi replies.
"Travel... allllll night?" I question.
"Do you have a problem..?"
"I can't keep going all night without something to eat! It's still kinda light enough to find something." I imply, though the only light in the sky was the moon, but it was blocked by the trees.
"No, we'll keep going through the night and ressst before we get there."
"Why? I'm getting tired.. can't we rest over night? Please? I'll get up early! I promise!" I exclaim. Keahebi sighs through his nostrils.
"Fine.. it had better be early." He says. I grin and look around.
"Just gotta find something to ea-" I was cut off by my own stomach rumbling. "Ngh, I'm starving."
"There'sss a river clossse." Keahebi says.
"Which way?" I question. Keahebi points his head left, and I run that way. Sure enough, I found a river about 10 minutes later. I cannonball into the river – any fish that were sleeping, my splash woke them up. They swim all over the place, now I just gotta catch some.
I managed to catch one in the darkness, but barely. I was lucky. I cooked it and ate it for dinner, whatever I didn't eat, Keahebi had the rest. I then lay down against a tree and fall asleep, ready for anything thrown my way tomorrow!
The moment a ray of sunlight touched my face, my eyes snap open and I jump to my feet. "YOSH!" I shout, I look up to the sky and notice the sun us only just beginning to rise. Keahebi lifts his head up slowly from his coiled position. I felt purely energised. I jump in the river straight away, the fish were out and about, and I sped through the water, almost like a water jet. Oh how the water felt so good and lively!
Eventually I got out, when the area had lit up from the sun. Soaking wet, I walk over to Keahebi, grinning big – for no particular reason.
"Had you fill of fun..?" Keahebi inquires, as though annoyed.
"Fun? That was just to release some energy!" I exclaim, though I still felt like I could run for miles.
"... Well let usss be on our way then." He says. I nod and follow as he slithered along the ground.
Keahebi was right, it was about midday when we arrived there. Otogakure. It was just across the border of the Land of Fire. It was filled with dark, flattened grass, the trees drooped and a lot of vines hung from them. Still no signs of any buildings or anything yet. I notice too, the ground was like marsh in small spots here and there. Keahebi seemed to enjoy it though.
"Might want to watch your ssstep.. thisss place isss the ideal place for sssnakesss to live.." He says.
"Eh-" I immediately freeze on the spot, my leg still in the air, about to tread on a coiled red snake. I slowly lower my foot away from it. "Now you tell me.." I groan. I was now watching the ground while walking, I'd look up every 5 minutes or so, and come face to face with a tree every now and then..
I didn't like this place, it had a dark gloomy feel to it. As we got further and further through the marsh parts, there were more and more trees.. and cob webs everywhere, and I mean everywhere! I was beginning to regret coming on this journey in the first place.
"The ssspidersss are mossstly in the treesss." Keahebi says. I sigh of relief.
"So I just have to stay away from the trees." I say, talking aloud to myself. I stopped on the spot and looked around for a moment. "How do you know where you're going? This place is really dark because of the trees!" I say, squinting my eyes.
"I cannot sssee. I have sssenssesss.." Keahebi says.
"What? You can't see at all!" I question, now amazed.
"... I can sssee infrared.. but that'sss it." He says.
"What's that?" I ask, stepping over an odd looking hole in the ground.
"... You ssshould really learn to sstudy. I'm not going to be a tutor right now." He says.
"Right! We have more important things to take care of!" I exclaim. I then felt something small and hairy touching the back of my leg. I look to my leg, seeing the biggest spider I've ever seen in my entire life, I scream at the top of my lungs. Keahebi immediately strikes at it, swallowing it in one gulp.
"Quiet human! You'll draw attention.." Keahebi hisses.
"Wh-where did that come from?" I question.
"From the underground burrowsss."
"B-but you told me spiders live in the trees!" I whine.
"That wasssn't a sspider. I-"
"It looked exactly like a spider!"
"It wasss a tarantula."
"...Eh?"
"Move along human, we don't have time for thisss."
Keahebi kept going, and so did I, hopping around, staying far from those weird looking holes in the ground. I was really scared right now, my heart felt like it was in my throat. I can't fail at bringing Kabuto-kun back, because I don't want to come here ever again.
The bushes and small shrubbery got bigger as we went on, and because of the denseness of this place, it felt like it was midnight, there was barely any light and it was very hard to see. Then I heard a small tinkling sound, water?
"We mussst be careful from now on." Keahebi says randomly, slithering through a thorny shrub. My eye twitches. 'What do you think I've been doing this whole time?'
I kicked a rock buried in the soft mud I've been walking on for the last 15 minutes, and almost tripped over.
"Becaussse of the rockss.." Keahebi says.
"Yeah.. I figured that.." I say, picking myself up straight again and continuing to manoeuvre around this impossible place. "Isn't there like a path or something somewhere?" I ask.
"Yesss.. there'sss a cobblessstone path that leadsss directly into the village.. however if we were to go along that we'd be caught immediately. It isss heavily guarded." Keahebi explains. I frown in disappointment.
"Well.. how much further is the village?" I ask.
"Over there.."
"Wha? Where?" I question. Keahebi stops on the other side of a bush, a vertical cliff-face. My eyes widen and I move back a bit. I've never been so afraid of heights in my life. It was such a long way down, and there was a small waterfall a few meters away, which would have been what I heard before.
"Come and look, don't be ssso ssscared." Keahebi hisses. I crouch down on all fours and slowly crawl to the edge and peep over.
Down at the bottom was a small river, diving a large bit of land, a big wooden bridge over the river, and quite a few wooden buildings – like a tiny village. But there was something odd about it. There was no one walking about down there. It looked abandoned.
"And.. Kabuto's down there..?" I ask.
"Could be.."
"Eh? What do you mean could be?" I question.
"Hussh!" He hisses. "Your voice will echo down there.."
"... Still, we came all this way.. and you're saying he could be there?" I complain.
"Well I'm not certain.. he could alwaysss be out on a misssion or sssomething like that."
"Ngh.. So how do we find out?" I ask.
"We have to ssneak around down there."
"And... how... do we get down there.." I ask, as if afraid of the answer. Keahebi nods his head towards the cliff. My eye twitches. "W...we're not... going... to.. jump... down.."
".. Yesss... we are.."
I gulp.
"I-I don't wanna jump.. not down that far.."
"It'sss only a few metersss... what are you sscared of?"
"Few meters? That's like a mile!" I exclaim. Keahebi sighs and shakes his head.
"Then how do you sssupposse we get down there..?"
I think about it for a minute then look over my shoulder, and blink a few times, then smile.