Chapter 26
No Need For A Stranger.
In the F.O.D.
Naruto and his team were running through the forest, trying to find a team that had the scroll of earth.
That is until Naruto came to a stop, a shadow of a tree covering his hair, his team standing behind him, both Sakura and Sasuke wondering what was happening, that is until they heard a voice coming from the forest.
"At long last, I have found you," Stepping out of the shadows was a hooded figure, they couldn't see the persons face, but the person was definitely feminine in shape, even if they were covered in head to toe by a hooded shroud, but both Sakura and Sasuke were shocked about one thing in particular, this person had a white cabbit, like Ryo-Ohki and Mimi, the person looked up, only showing one of their eyes to them, "Ryoko."
Naruto narrows his eyes at the person, knowing who this person was, but he knows that she was mistaking him for his mother, Ryoko.
Naruto, making sure the person wasn't listening, spoke quietly to his team, "Sakura, Sasuke, I want you two to move on, take Mimi with you so I'll be able to find you."
Sasuke and Sakura were shocked at what Naruto was saying, Sakura, as quietly as possible, starts arguing, "What are you talking about Naruto, she's only one person, we can take her together."
Naruto gives Sakura a sharp glare, making the girl flinch and was shocked at such a look, even Sasuke was surprised at such a look, as far as both knew, Naruto was never this serious, even before his transformation, Naruto took a deep breath, trying to not show their "company" anything.
Naruto then begins telling them, "Listen you two, this person isn't someone from here, she is from the same "place" as my family," Naruto tells them cryptically, not knowing who was around to listen in.
Sasuke and Sakura were shocked, someone came from space and apparently looking for Ryoko, but ended up mistaking Naruto for her, most likely her hood and the shadow from the trees not helping her to identify Naruto properly and she was, no doubt, sweating under her shroud, it was a Konoha Summer after all, and Konoha was based in "The Land Of Fire" and the country was called that for a reason, not just because of the ninja knowing fire jutsus, but because during the Summer Time it gets the hottest. (A.N. Think of Thailand in Summer, sometimes it jumps to 44 Celsius, then gets higher than that, so someone walking around in the hottest summer, wearing a shroud is bound to get heatstroke.)
Naruto, never taking his eyes off the person, orders them, "Listen you two, you don't know who she is, I do, and right now we don't have time to fill you both in, you guys try and find a scroll and take Mimi with you, I'll try and find you guys as fast as possible, now go!"
With that both Sasuke and Sakura, who was carrying Mimi, jumped away, the person paid them no mind, having eyes focused only on the Ryoko-esq figure before her, though she was wondering why she was seeing doubles, shaking her head to clear her mind, it was probably the heat getting to her, no matter, she'll finish off "Ryoko" here and now before she dies in this blasted heat.
Before Naruto could start talking the person started attacking, not listening to what her white cabbit was saying, mostly because of the heat.
Naruto was dodging, shooting light blasts and flickering in and out of his target's attacks, the shrouded person wasn't standing still ether, she was evading the blasts, the lightsword slashes and dodging the punches Naruto was throwing at her.
As she dodges again, Naruto moves to attack, that is until the stranger whips out a device and before he knew what was happening, he was wrapped up in an energy rope, suddenly feeling electricity going through him, Naruto falls to the floor in agony, he wasn't unconscious, at least not yet anyway.
He sees the person holding the end, move towards him, seeing the smirk as if to say 'I've won' the person starts speaking, though by the sound of it she was struggling to keep standing, "W-Well, (huff) Ryoko, (Huff) Y-You put... up more of a fight... Than last time..., I-I have to h-hurry an-" Before she could finish what she was saying, something hit the back of her neck, as she was falling to the ground the last she heard was her Cabbit meowing and something going pop.
Just as the unconscious person was about to hit the ground, from behind, Naruto caught her, looking towards where the other Naruto was, there was nothing there but some left-over smoke, meaning that the Naruto that was caught was a clone.
You see on the last dodge the shrouded person took, seeing as it distorted them, gave Naruto enough time to make a clone and jump into the trees before they could right themselves, the cabbit was too worried about their partner to see him make one.
With a sigh, Naruto picks up the person bridal-style, though before he could walk on, he hear something hissing at his feet, looking down, it turned out the white cabbit was trying to stop him from taking his friend, smiling at such devotion and loyalty, he couldn't help but think that it reminds him of himself, he says to the little thing, "Relax Ken-Ohki," Hearing his name he calms down a bit, confused how someone knows his name, "I'm not going to hurt her, I'm just taking her somewhere to cool off, listen."
Doing what the strange, Ryoko look-alike asked, Ken closes his eyes and hears running water, probably from a river or a stream by the sounds of it, Naruto starts explaining, "All I'm doing is take her to that water source, remove this shroud on her and get some water to help cool her down, no doubt she mistook me for mom because she's not use to this heat, it's only thanks to Washu that the others aren't effected by the climate change here."
Hearing the stranger explain, hearing no lie, he meows in agreement, Naruto smiles and replies, "Great, hope on my shoulder and I'll take you and her to the water, I bet your pretty hot yourself, huh?" Ken-Ohki just meows dully as if saying 'no duh,' Naruto just chuckles at that and thinks to himself, "Well, it's nice to meet you in person at last," He looks down and smiles at the person in his arms.
"Nagi."