Chapter 21: Land of Whirlpools (7): Trapped Inside the Forest.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto.
The ocean breeze was cold and humid, but the air on the beach could burn the skin. Golden sparks flew off a long, golden, fire dragon like a sparkler as it flew around the air, twisting and turning at sharp angles like it had no spine. Its face was fierce like a demon, and its eyes were red, glaring at the black-feathered bird in front of it.
"Growl…"
"CAW! CAW!"
When the fire dragon charged toward it, the bird of prey turned with a flap of its wings, the blazing teeth of the golden dragon grazing its obsidian feathers.
The golden dragon didn't stop, turning its head to spit out a torrent of golden inferno, intending to roast the crow into dust.
"CAW!"
The crow looked back, its eyes glimmering as it watched the pillar of fire rapidly approach it. When the flames were one inch away from its tail feathers, the crow raised its wings and push heavily downward, abruptly shooting up, letting the pillar of flames pass by it without doing any harm.
After missing its target for the second time, the golden dragon trembled, its fiery scales burning tall like a tree and bright like the sun.
ROARR!
The dragon roared, charging at the crow whose head wasn't even turned toward it. The crow's attention wasn't on the dragon but on the master of the dragon.
"CAW!"
"Shit!"
When the crow turned into a blur, Yukito dispelled the golden fire dragon and channeled chakra into his chest.
CLANG!
CAW! CAW! CAW!
The crow's talon and the adamantine sealing chains clashed, forcing the crow to retreat into the air. Yukito didn't hesitate to create another golden fire dragon wrapped in sealing chains when he saw the crow fly into the air.
"ROARRR!"
"CAW! CAW!"
Seeing another dragon appear, the crow flapped its wings madly and cried, glaring at the golden dragon who glared back. Then, the crow glanced at Yukito, who was now kneeling on the ground and dove toward him like an arrow, completely ignoring the golden dragon.
"So fast—"
POOF!
Yukito yelled out before disappearing in a puff of smoke, replaced by a log.
"CAW!"
BAM!
The crow didn't stop, reaching out with its beak, and pecked at the center of the log, shredding it in an instant. The golden fire dragon behind it used its remaining time to charge at the crow, while its body slowly disintegrated. Meanwhile, the chains on the golden dragon fell toward the crow.
Clang—clang—CLANG!
"CAW!"
When the heavy, adamantine sealing chains landed on the crow, it cried out in shock and fluttered its wings, creating massive gusts of wind. With its strong body and wings, it didn't take the crow three seconds before it shook off the sealing chains on its back.
"CAW!"
With the sealing chains out of its back, the crow circled around the area for a long time. When it didn't find Yukito, it cried out in anger and ravaged the wooden log with its beak and talons, before flying back into the forest.
Meanwhile, Yukito was hiding behind a tree while concealing his chakra. He used a subtle genjutsu to hide and smiled when he sensed the crow flying into the forest.
He substituted back with the log on the beach and substituted again with a relatively big boulder near the shore. He repeated the process until he substituted for a dozen times before stopping.
"Unfortunately, the sealing chains weren't connected with me when I substituted, or else that crow would've been done for…"
Yukito mumbled, his somehow eternal smile dimming a bit more. After his brief fight with the crow, he had to create a total of three golden fire dragons. Now, he barely has a fifth of his chakra left.
"CAW! CAW! CAW!"
"What?!"
Yukito shivered and looked behind him. His eyes widened when he saw a black blur rapidly approach.
"Damn it, just get away already!"
Yukito yelled and took out a scroll, throwing it toward the crow.
"Fūinjutsu: Earth Binding Seal!"
"CAW!"
When the scroll opened, it spat out a massive amount of mud that tried to wrap around the crow. The crow didn't even glance at it and only flapped its wings to fly faster.
Yukito was about to take out another scroll when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head as if his brain was being squeezed.
"ARGH!"
"CAW!"
Seeing Yukito fall to the ground, the crow cried out happily and used its beak to peck at Yukito's head. Yukito sensed this and used chakra to protect his head.
Despite his efforts, his head still bled and he fell unconscious not a second later.
"CAW!"
'Damn it… I shouldn't have come to this place…'
The crow's cry was the last thing he remembered before passing out.
"What? The White Bear bandit army at the east was wiped out? What was sensei's and Danzo's response?"
Inside a laboratory, two men stood. One had long, black hair and golden pupils, while the other had short, white hair and round glasses. The walls, ceiling, and floor of the laboratory were whiter than marble, yet they didn't shine brightly. Instead, it was dull, as if it absorbed all the light inside the dimly lit laboratory.
The white-haired man nodded his head and spoke after handing a glass of water to the black-haired man.
"Master, Danzo, and the third hokage are still doing everything to search for the jinchūriki."
"They haven't found where Naruto is yet? How incompetent," Orochimaru scoffed as he looked at his apprentice. Then, he shook his head.
Speaking of his sensei, that plan is ready and can be launched at any moment.
"I was about to buy a lot of Uzumaki from those bandits, if only I bought them sooner before they were destroyed…"
Orochimaru sighed. He was still interested in the Uzumaki blood. Because of Naruto's disappearance, Karin became his unfortunate subject.
"What a shame. Although Karin is an Uzumaki, her blood talent hadn't awakened yet. I remember Kushina being the princess of Uzushio, so I hoped Naruto would've awakened his blood talent sooner than Karin but…"
Orochimaru paused, suddenly remembering something that happened months ago.
"Oh right, have you seen that person Hiroku? Wasn't he recruited by Danzo?"
When his clone was defeated by a boy named Hiroku, he fell from his bed. From the clone's memories, he realized that Hiroku had a talent for fūinjutsu and wanted to recruit him or kidnap him to make his work non-stop, but he was a beat too late.
Danzo had already gotten the boy.
"Master, I heard that Danzo's base had been attacked one fateful night, and a couple of ROOT shinobi died due to the explosives the attacker used."
Kabuto then recounted the story about Danzo's underground base beings attacked, and how Konoha experienced a sudden earthquake because of it.
"And?"
Orochimaru stared at Kabuto, who adjusted his glasses before speaking.
"When I was… visiting Danzo's base, I found a couple of sealing chakra. I doubt any of ROOT's fūinjutsu experts would betray Danzo, so the only suspect left is Hiroku."
Like any other technique, sealing jutsus leaves behind a unique chakra, commonly referred to by the ninja world as sealing chakra. Long story short, sealing techniques leave behind sealing chakra when they are used.
"Interesting, so Danzo's base was attacked by a brat…"
Orochimaru chuckled, before remembering that his own clone was defeated by the same "brat". That too with a mere genjutsu.
"Damn it, I have to quickly regain my spiritual strength. If I don't fix this weakness, then sooner or later, I'll be in trouble."
Without looking back at Kabuto, Orochimaru went deeper into the lab and when the hallway had turned pitch black, he halted and opened a sealed door.
Behind the door were three massive tubes filled with green, transparent liquid. Inside the tubes were three children, and all of them had red hair.
"Karin's clones are almost ready. When these clones finish incubating, I should be able to train them in the arts of fūinjutsu. Maybe one of them has a chance at awakening their blood talent," Orochimaru smirked.
Rustle…
Inside a forest in the land of whirlpools, a boy with pastel, orange hair flinched, freezing like a statue when he crushed a dry leaf below him. Then, he suppressed his chakra signature and held his breath, carefully taking out a bow on his back and shooting out an arrow with a stink bomb wrapped around the tip.
Wooooosh—POP!
When the arrow hit a tree far away from his location, the stink bomb exploded and emitted a foul stench.
POOF!
"CAW!"
Just after the boy vanished in a puff of smoke, a giant crow with a scar on the left side of its head flew above the trees, watching as the cloud of smoke disappear.
"CAW!"
Seeing that its target went missing, the crow cried out and landed on a tree branch, carefully observing the arrow and the cloud of foul stench around it.
The crow was now familiar with this scene. It watched it happen dozens of times before, so it knew to not mind the arrow and the odor.
Flap–flap–flap!
The crow jumped off the branch and flew into the cloud of stinky odor, its eyes sharply glued to the ground below as it glided.
Meanwhile, a young boy was hiding behind a rock.
The rock was small, barely able to cover his body while he crouched, but the boy took the gamble and hid behind it. His right hand covered his nose, while his left hand formed a hand seal.
If things go wrong, he could instantly vanish in a puff of smoke.
'God damned crow.'
The boy was Yukito. He'd been trying to escape from this giant crow for 30 days already.
When he fell unconscious, he woke up in a cave filled with sticks and branches. He wondered how he got there, but when he realized that he was still alive, Yukito made up a plan to escape.
Unfortunately for him, his escape plan was riddled with holes.
When he stepped out of the cave and entered the forest, he was surrounded by three chakra beasts in less than an hour. If the crow had not appeared and carried him out of that situation, he would've died.
While he was thankful to the crow for saving his life, it didn't change the fact that he was being held captive by the crow.
For the past month, the only food he ate was raw meat from chakra beasts. He would've gotten food poisoning by now if not for his powerful chakra helping with digesting whatever entered his stomach.
When Yukito sensed the crow getting further and further away, Yukito breathed out a sigh of relief before tensing up.
'No, this is a trick. I fell for this two times now, I won't fall for it for the third damned time!'
Yukito was about to leave, but then he halted and remained still. He stayed still for an entire day before he sensed the crow returning to the tree that the arrow struck.
"CAW!"
The crow flapped its wings, aggrieved that its target had not appeared yet, and left.
When Yukito sensed the crow come back and leave, he gritted his teeth. He didn't know if the crow could sense his location, but he has to gamble now. He won't leave his hiding spot until the crow stopped returning to this place.
One week later.
Yukito smiled. His smile that had vanished for a month had returned, but his face was hollow, his muscles were thin, and some bones were showing through his pale skin. His stomach would grumble all day, and if not for the water bottles on his cloud scroll, he would've been dehydrated already.
'I swear, I'll stock up on food after this.'
Yukito sighed and left.
After three days, Yukito couldn't sense the crow returning anymore, but he still waited for another four days just to be safe. Now, one month and one week after he was captured by the crow, he was finally free.
"I don't know where I am."
Yukito realized the grave situation he was in, but he didn't care. During the last seven days, he turned all of his sealing scrolls into explosive scrolls. He could destroy the forest if he wanted to.
"Let's just go in one direction."
Yukito thought and started walking. Not far behind him, a crow was silently stalking him from a distant tree branch.
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