Chapter 23
After seeing Naruto and the other vanished, Neji informed his team what had happened. Guy as such ordered his team to make back for the Leaf Village with all hast. As such they were standing before Tsunade give their report in just over three days time. Guy had just finished the main part when Neji stepped forward; he had something to explain as well.
"Hokage, I also have something to tell you, that I personally saw," Neji said.
"Does this deal with the Hyuuga standing order, to retrieve Hinata at all costs if she is spotted on a mission?" Tsunade asked, gaining and slightly annoyed look.
"Partly, as while on the mission as you have already been told, we met up with Hinata, Yugito, and Naruto. But when I went to follow them before the ship left the harbor, so that I could capture and return Hinata something rather weird happened," Neji explained.
"Weird? Explain please what you mean," Tsunade said.
"When I moved to capture her, something was either summoned, or teleported behind them. It was nearly the size of a boss summon if I were to guess. From its back three tentacles of energy shot out to each Naruto, Yugito, and Hinata. As soon as the energy touched them, the creature and the three vanished," Neji explained.
"Vanished, are we talking teleportation like that of most ninja jutsu?" Tsunade asked.
"No, it must have been the creatures own skills," Neji answered.
"Can you describe the creature to me," Tsunade asked.
"It was tall, as I said before with a large white body and two horns on either side of its head. It walked on four pointed legs, with no real sign of hooves or feet. Its underbelly and part of its front were gray in color," Neji said.
"Not a lot to go off of and does not match any know summons; even those we know for sure Naruto had," Tsunade said.
Neji nodded, "I agree it is not something easy described. But I do remember one other thing that might help, around hit midsection was a large ring, or two half of a ring, gold in color."
Tsunade nodded, "That would help identify it better, but that still does not point to any know summons."
"Lady Tsunade, might I make a suggestion," Guy said.
"Yes," Tsunade said, nodding.
"What has been described is a beast of unknown origins. This is also true for each and everyone one of Naruto's summons. And remember no one knows who or even what the boss summon looks like," Guy said.
"Are you saying that, this might have been the boss summon of Naruto's Summon Contract," Tsunade said.
"Yes, that possibility is rather high. As you know, a person cannot hold a summon contract for long without the Controller or the Summon Contract testing them in some way as to see if they are truly worthy of holding the contract," Guy explained.
"That would be a good idea expect for one problem. The creatures Naruto summons are but clones of the real things, and kept asleep in a separate pocket dimension till they are needed," Jiraiya said, appearing behind the group before continuing, "That and the boss summon, is not the creature you described just now."
"You seem to know a lot about Naruto's Summons, yet never told anyone," Tsunade commented.
"He was never a threat to this village as you know quite well. So I was not worried about him becoming a threat. But that also means if he was not summoned way by one of his own summons, that means we are dealing with some unknown factor," Jiraiya said.
Tsunade nodded, "That leaves one other question, why do they want Naruto and his friends."
Mean while Naruto and his team were having a rather annoying figuring out just where they were. They had been dropped by the creature, whatever it was, in this world that seemed devoid of anything animal life, though it was thriving with all kinds of plant life. And while this did not feel true to them, their main goal was not figuring out why they thought animals were about. But rather find out where they were, or even better how to get home, which was something they had been at for nearly four days now.
Naruto sighed as he lay around in their makeshift home; it was a quick built tree house. It kept them safe from any normal predators, or so they hoped, while also providing them protection from the rain and sun. Currently he was guarding the house while the others were out, either gather food exploring the surround country. Food and water were easily to find, as many of the plants had berries growing from them. And streams passed near their location as well.
Naruto got up hearing footsteps getting close, and sat up right as Hinata entered into the house. She had been doing the days job of collecting fruit they could use for food, as well as the water needed. Yugito came in a moment later and sighed, showing that her exploration mission likely failed, but was more than happy to be back at the house.
"Well again, nothing new to report," Yugito said.
"As you can see, no one has shown up here," Naruto said.
"And nothing on mind end to report other than good food," Hinata said.
Naruto nodded, they had taken to rotating shifts of who did what, each day as to keep from becoming bored. It work well so far, and they were already starting to map out much of the area around them. But by the look of it, they were not going to make much headway. The forest, in which they lived currently, had any real landmarks that could help with directions. Though there was one thing that made a good landmark, a mountain off in the distance. It was one of the few things they used to help find their home each day, that and the tree they lived in currently was the tallest in the forest. This meant it was easier to locate since they could travel among the tree tops.
"We really need to figure out what to do, besides stay here," Hinata said, later on as they ate dinner.
"Agreed, we stayed here on the chance that whoever had brought us here, would come back looking. But thanks to the lack of any creature, or people actually living here, I think it might be time to move on," Yugito said.
"But where is the question. As we know there is food here, but if we leave should we leave for a place that we can find food, or head for the mountain and back?" Hinata asked.
"Towards the mountain, it is the only thing within sight, and it gives us a good vantages point of the lands around us," Naruto pointed out.
"Yes, but we will have to make sure to bring at least a day's worth of food with us. Just in case that mountain is farther off than it looks," Yugito said, thoughtfully.
"Why do you think it might be farther off then it looks," Hinata asked.
"Well if it was say taller than we thought it really was based on distance, we might see it farther off, then we would a shorter mountain," Yugito pointed out.
"Good point," Naruto said, nodding in agreement.
"So should we leave now? This is enough food, if we wished to leave now," Hinata said, pointed out.
"Sounds like an idea," Naruto said, grabbing a sealing scroll from his things and sealed up the food.
"Wait, it is nearly night fall. Shouldn't we wait till dawn when we can see where we are going?" Yugito asked.
"We all can see just fine in the dark," Naruto pointed out.
"I guess you have a point," Yugito said.
They soon packed up their things and were headed towards the mountain. And as Yugito said it was soon dark out as night fell. But still they traveled on, only resting as need, not seeing a single creature, living or dead as they moved along. Naruto took the lead while the other two followed, and as he moved along he could not help but feel something was familiar about this place.
It took them nearly two days to make reach the mountain, even with a good night's rest and short breaks along the way. This was a slight surprising all thing considered, but when they reached the point of the mountain that was most identifiable, the rocky upper section did they realize just how high they were up, as they could see for miles. The land towards where their tree house was, was mostly forested land, but every once and a while they could make out a river rushing through the trees. And while this gave them a general layout of the land, they did not stop. They were climbing to reach the mountain peak, so they could see the entire land around the mountain.
It took another day before they finally reached the summit. Naruto and the others were rather happy that as they moved along, they found a great deal of food which helped feed them as they moved along. As while there was water on the mountain, there was no food. Soon they reached the summit of the mountain and were meant by a surprising sight. As at the top was a large temple, and in front of it was a cloaked figure. The group moved slowly forward, till finally the cloaked figure was within ear shot.
"Welcome to the Temple of the Pokemon Gods. Please follow me," The figure said with a female voice, "We have been waiting for you."