A strange new life

5.5

Due to the nature of our mission, there would be no training for the foreseeable future. I was very conflicted about that. Pre Crushcrushcrush was an intense month of improving both myself and my techniques. The days of walking, talking, and not improving felt off, like I was wasting my time. I still felt guilty of my failure to save the old man, and the lack of concrete improvements only made that worse. Or maybe I was a masochist and enjoyed physical and mental suffering. The jury was still out on that one.

Not that we had that much time. On the first days of walking Yamato set a hard pace. A whole day of walking wasn’t hard for a trained shinobi, but walking, pretending to be someone else, while constantly paying attention to your surroundings wasn’t easy. Come night, I was exhausted. Not to the same point as the hell month training, but still drained. Then we had to set up camp, cook food, and prepare things for the next day.

Once the team gathered, Yamato started what I called an infodump meeting. “Hayase, can you update the whole team on Konoha’s current political scenario?” 

Hayase lit up with interest. Gave a sharp nod and started talking.

It was interesting, but also boring. It was hard to keep attention after a day of travel and mental concentration. My bed roll called my name. Whispered tempting promises. Hayase's droning voice made it even harder to pay attention.

Days of travel went by. 

I think after the second day Yamato noticed my restlessness. Our strategy meetings after the second day turned into impromptu lessons about intelligence gathering, infiltration and politics. We talked about ways to use our techniques, discussed scenarios and possible outcomes. Fan-girl-chan had the time of her life. Even if boring Sai still annoyed me with his lack of enthusiasm and direct responses.

There was no clear indicator we left the Land of Fire, but after close to a week of travel, when we arrived at a small village, the difference was impossible to miss. The architecture, the style of buildings, the colors, not to mention the rolling plains of rice fields. Not that it really changed anything we saw: The place looked like a horror movie ghost town. 

Decrepit wooden houses, broken doors, burnt walls. If this was a western village, I would even expect a dust devil rolling around. The wind coming from the village carried the stench of carrion and rot.

Yamato raised his hand. We stopped. He moved his fingers, gave us orders. Sai, Hinata, scout.

I gave it a mental ‘hell yeah’. Time to put all my sneaky shinobi skills to the test! Giddy excitement threatened to make me act stupid. But I was sure I kept the excitement out of my face. And body. The swaying was just me getting ready to go all out. Yamato’s knowing look was just a figment of my imagination.

By this point, this kind of thing should have already become routine and not trigger fan-girl-chan, but much to my continued happiness, it still did. I held my happy dancing, but the smile still snaked into my face. I crouched down, performed hand seals, placed both hands on the ground. I didn’t really need to, but doing so looked cool. I used two jutsu. Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu and Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

Sai took his paintbrush, I don't know where from, drew some sort of bird, let it fly soon after. Sai was still uncool, but his jutsu was awesome.

Something I never considered popped in my mind: Was I betraying team seven by getting my ninja fix with another team? No, that was stupid, and silly. I pushed that thought out.

Clone-chan didn’t take long to unpop herself. I braced against the rush of memories and impressions. Reported once I parsed through the information. Raised a hand, fingers signing the code: No chakra presence nearby. 

Sai’s report came soon after. “No one inside the village” 

Yamato nodded, gesturing to us to get into formation. He took point moving toward the village, while Hayase covered our backs. Sai and I flanked the two, keeping an eye out for any threat.

The village was worse than I thought at first. The cloying smell of decay and rot didn’t prepare us for the scene we found. Bodies, old and young, men and women, torn to shreds. There were signs of fighting: a corpse held a pitchfork, another had a wood spear. It didn’t seem like the work of a shinobi. Not with the state the bodies were left in. Looked like an animal attack.

Our brief inspection revealed what we already knew. No survivors. Not even the children were spared. The tracks and other details we found made no sense. Whatever the attacker was, it seems to be a heavy humanoid, given the indentations left by its passing. There were different weapon marks on the corpses and buildings but also claw marks and looked like teeth marks. We left the village untouched. A part of me wanted to stop and give those people a decent burial, but that wasn’t our mission, and we didn’t have time. 

A few minutes away from the destroyed village, Yamato finally broke his silence. “We avoid any other small community and go straight to the nearest trading town.”

Our team nodded. I understood his reasoning. If there was something out there killing isolated places, we would have better luck going straight to a bigger city. We increased our pace, and raised our vigilance. The surrounding woods took a different tone. Where it once was idyllic and a bit boring, now the rolling plains of rice felt oppressive, ominous. I thought back on the things I’d seen. None of the wound marks on the corpses looked like injuries from any shinobi weapon I was familiar with. It was what I thought a rampaging beast’s attack might look like. A rampaging beast that also had access to strange weapons, claws and teeth. The more I thought about it, the more it looked like something really big and strong just pulled people apart, or split them with a heavy blade. Like a kid pulling off the wings and legs of an insect.

That night, we didn’t sleep, nor did we light a fire. Hayase was the first to question that decision. “Why? Normal travelers don’t camp in the dark.”

Yamato looked around. “Too risky.”

Hayase opened his mouth again, maybe to argue. Yamato just stared at the chunin, huge black eyes framed by darkness. Inner me wanted to fangirl at finally seeing the man’s ultimate weapon to control Naruto, but I couldn’t. Hayase soon looked away, shivered like it was cold. Didn’t complain again.

That killed any other further complaint. Given the circumstances, Yamato didn’t even mind when I popped a few cupcakes after an awful cold dinner. I kept vigil the entire night. Cast my senses as far as I could, trying to feel any chakra presence nearby.

I don’t know if it was my imagination, but it felt like something was watching me from the dark. I had no basis for why I thought that. There was no noise, no chakra presence, not even the sound of night animals. But the nagging sensation of being watched persisted the whole night.

Aside from that, the only thing out of normal was a distant roar of some unknown animal. It was so low and distant I wasn’t even sure it wasn’t my imagination. It also seems I wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on the surroundings. It wasn’t Sai’s watch schedule, but he still sent a few chakra birds flying out. That earned him a few points. I guess he was also worried about being attacked at night.

The next day, we pressed hard on our journey, while still trying to keep a normal travelers’ appearance. I was feeling a bit tired, but again, it was nothing compared to the hell month. I could endure a few more days without sleep, even more when I circulated my chakra. Something I started doing more and more in that month of training. It left me feeling energized and ready.

It was the start of the afternoon when Sai reported. “There’s a town, just ahead.”

Yamato nodded. “Good job, Sai.” He turned to the rest of us. “Remember, we are travelers, don’t draw unnecessary attention. Hinata, you are with me. Hayase and Sai, you two stick together. Don’t wander alone, be discreet when trying to find out more about our goal.”

Tasks decided and orders given, we crossed the remaining distance until we found a walled town, with locked and barred gates. Peeking from above the wall, a rough voice hailed us. “Who goes there? State your business!”