Hikari no unmei Arc 1 Ch. 7 P4

The ship with Taka as well submits a good speed but there is still no way they reach Hyroga in less than one day. The ship currently sails through a big shoal. It has many different kinds of fish in it, unusual but not impossible. The seagulls circle around the crow's nest in a big circle and from time to time, dive down to catch a fish of the colorful carpet. For the lookout position Asura is on duty for now. Her hair fly's in the breezy wind of the sea. Her new outfit is way nobler then the scraped slave tunic she had on before she joined Takas raid on the pirates. She now wears a cold and unfriendly DarkSlateBlue outfit without sleeves. A black rose bouquet is stitched on it and it comes with a skirt that is long, quadratic and free on the sites though it still covers the critical parts, even when moving fast. It reaches down to the feet and has a clean seam on it. The neck of it is fully closed. Of course there is nothing to see around here beside some rocks that jut out of the ocean when there is a flatter part or a reef close. The streams are peaceful today and the wind is good. There is not much to do on deck today so most helpers just lie around lazy. Sasukes sits on the front part of the deck and empty looks at the ocean to observe the waves. Whatever he thinks, it takes him out far from this world. Karin is concerned about him but doesn't want to disrupt him. "(What is with him lately, he changed much since I met him, first he was rather nice them he became darker and colder and now he is like from another world or rather always dwelling in one. What bothers him that much?)"
Juugo is playing around with some rats and Suigetsu is just lazy right now. Risa who was awake for some days now still sleeps in her thistle color ruffled underwear. Taka can enjoy this calm day off.

It is evening again but this night Shen takes Naruto along the trapping. "So Naruto, do you remember what I taught you yesterday?"
"You mean about all the different kinds of trap and how they work?"
"Exactly and do you understand it better today?"
"A bit but I'm far from mastering it."
"Hehe, didn't expect it from you but now let us set up some traps. Maybe you understand it better after the good old praxis. Theory is just a part of it, an important one but still just a part. Now for your first practical lecture of setting up working traps. Normally you don't know the skill of the followers or any potential danger and you can only evaluate how good they are. It also is unknown if they know about your presence or if they have ill intentions at all. Now calculate what to do. This is often just a lucks play, a gamble. You of course could set up the best traps with the best material you have to stop them but for each trap you need material and once a trap is set, the material can barely retrieve at its fullest if it was not necessary. Further, you can't carry infinite materials and you must household with it. Who knows how often you could use it better than you just did. Sometimes missions are very long and you can't get any materials everywhere. Maybe a very skilled Ninja crosses your way and the only trap that could work against him was used right at the beginning and you couldn't stock it up again. Good trappers know how they get there material and which material can substitute another with the same product in the end."
"The probably easiest one is the basic alarming trap. You simple span a line with bells or other noisy things attached on it between trees or other stable items, low on the ground so it is disguised and as soon as someone touches it, it alarms you. Not very useful when being followed and in danger but it can be enhanced when, for example use tags of some kinds to additionally damage the followers. An advanced version can inform you from afar, through Chakra waves if one hit it and tell you, you are being followed. Normally I don't use these simple traps and it is just for starters but I want to teach you about traps and the basics are still the basics. Before we go to the real deal with traps that actually work on higher skilled enemies we must engrave them in you. At first I will assure that you get nightmares from the basics before we step up in the difficulty." He shows how to set one to Naruto.

"It is that simple for one that can bind knots as you see, now you." Naruto sets up the trap as showed and Shen tests the stability. Naruto first try was fail in his eyes. "Oh boy, epic fail. The least I can expect from a Shinobi, no wannabe Shinobi with way too much power fits better, is that he can bind a simple and strong knot. I did even just show how one should look. Is this supposed to be a joke? Man, sometimes you are like the perfect leader and other times. I wonder why you're not ashamed to look like an academy starter. Now don't joke around and do it right." Naruto does it and it is a nice work. "Better now?" Shen seems very satisfied now but tells him different. "So you do know, good, seems acceptable for a beginner. And to not overtax you we continue with the different variations of it now. For the next string take some Shuriken and draw them over it. Between each two Shuriken leave space of around 5 centimeters so they have enough room and don't jam. This kind must hang higher to do some damage to the feet but still should be covered well. It is suited for place with high grass and that but then again there also must be something to attach it. We have a good place right there so you can set it." He points to the fix points for the string.
"As you already saw these strings are thin and special colored to be suite for the most situations. Through a chance this grass there will make it 100% invisible until it is too late to avoid. Since we head more and more into wood I expect this is the best and last chance for such a trap so I showed it to you. We have just one place close to here that suits for a third trap of this kind so we go with the Tag variation next." Naruto ask an interrupting question. It caught him why Shen says this. There are plenty of trees around so naturally one gets curious or at least should, so Naruto. "I just wonder, there are enough trees around to attach it so why should there be only one position left?" Slight angered Shen answers it. "Didn't you listen? For this traps certain conditions must be met and only one position that does that is left around here. We could install other traps there but only advanced once and it wouldn't be good explaining even some of them to you now. You haven't even internalized the basic ones. You can watch me setting them but I won't explain them just yet. Anyway, look. These Tags have some small holes on their top that allows you to thread them. Here you should have 7-10 centimeters on the left and the right space and maybe more if you are low on tags but not above 15 centimeters or they won't work at all. Then, after it hangs, can be also used within tree tops or like lianas if well covered you must activate it with a spark of Chakra. After, they are activated and will clue on anyone passing it and then take effect, depending on the one you put into it. Explosion, water release, fire release or whatever you used, and there are tons of, to damage the prey. Of course it is possible to get it off if noticed fast enough, to prevent damage. Further the waste is high and the material rare and expensive so it should be used with care. Then there always is the possibility with locate the trap in time, if you calculate with such tricks and search especially for it. There are enough other traps though and with a good mix you can safe material and still have good effect." He ends nicely.

"I get it OK." He completes the setting and asks Shen how it looks immediate after. "Finished, is it good?" Shen checks it throughout and likes the result though he doesn't show it. "No fuck up this time, I can accept it like that. So my lecture now is over. I will set up other traps but won't answer any question about them so you can as well go for the camp now." Naruto smiles interested. "I still stay, won't hurt and might make it easier when it is my turn." "As you wish, can't be wrong at all." He prepares some sticks and stabs them in the earth with some good distance, then he builds some seals and grips the sticks one after an other. They are far away from each other but he fast walks to each. Circling waves centering the sticks emit and become bigger and then sudden vanish. After he covers the sticks so they don't work suspicious and continues. Naruto witness the whole process.
"You just put Chakra in them and the wave covered a good ground, why." Shen is frightened enough that he cuts himself while cower a moment for getting some bark. Naruto sure did surprise him with his note. "Hey, how did you get this?" Unknowing Naruto answers and lifts his shoulders. "Honestly I have no clue, I just saw some strange wave but why did you it." He works on with his assignment while listening to Naruto. Shen is confused now because he has no useful explanation how easy Naruto seems to have noticed it. "I have no idea how you could see it because you have no eye improving abilities to see Chakra though you have good eyes. There is a faint sight of this wave but normally no one can see it, even many special skilled Shinobi but it is not bad either. Now back to your actual question. I just prepared a Genjutsu field. If someone passes here he or she gets caught in a Genjutsu and will change direction to far away from here. This distracts followers long enough to give us time to either prepare a battle or leave from here. I show you how it works eventually now let me prepare some more traps peacefully and then we head back in the camp. OK?" "Okay." Now he collects some leafs from different trees around and piles them up. Again he puts Chakra in them and releases them in the wind. "No we have some silent spies around us so up to the next." Now Shen looks around, especially checking the trees for holes in the upper part with certain angles to the ground. He sudden stops and so does Naruto that walks a few steps behind and then Shen takes out a tag from his bag. He places it on the ground and shoves earth on it until it is not seeable anymore. He now climbs up one of the trees until close below the top, just before the log splits into many branches. There is a hole in the log. As big as it is it was probably a home for some big birds or got that big through the way the tree crow up for so long. In it he installs a bunch of Kunai, slight different angled so they have the widest possible spread if fired but still are tight enough so no normal limbs or a body can twist to avoid getting hit entirely. He does the same with other trees around and connects them to the buried tag with Chakra. "So that's it. We now have different traps around to defend us long enough if something is after us. We should now head back to the camp and sleep." "Good, I'm pretty tired now as well. I guess I will sleep the whole night through." Despite saying it like that and underlining it with a hearty yawn his eyes show he is burning to ask something now. They walked much since the camp was set and now head back to it.

"Shen, am I right, the tag you buried a while ago is connected to the tree holes with the hidden Kunai and works something like a trigger." "Good observance and logic conclusion of you. Good I didn't waste as much time on you. You just have to want. It works indeed so. If someone steps on it or close to it, it activates the launcher I put up and the Kunai get fired." Naruto looks away, surprised by this compliment and Shen smiles in the night in front. He won't admit it but he got a liking to Narutos way. "You know, I was testing you when I said I won't answer questions anymore but you kept asking which I wanted you to be. You expression said me you wanted to ask even more but not as bad but you still asked some important questions and noticed some critical points therefore I now know you are interested in it and you learn what I say, else I had stopped teaching you from tomorrow on cause it would have been hopeless. Anyway, time to head back. Shouldn't be that far from our camp anymore until we reach the border of set region and we don't know what lies there so we are better fit when we reach it and should sleep now." "Right" and soon they are back at the camp. Kou sleeps already and the other two lie down to sleep as well.

It is middle in the night, far after the dusk and still way too early for dawn. Naruto sleeps restless in this moment. He fidgets and rolls around. He could hit the campfire any moment like that and burn his butt. Lucky for him he wakes up before. Exhaust he looks around. He sweats and tatters still. Clueless he looks around to get something to calm him. His face shows something really disturbing and he is stiff like a board. His muscles are tense and his eyes burn. He is clueless what caused it and if he had seen his mirror image just before he woke up he had seen the Sage eyes but now they are long since vanished. Something activated him and he has no clue about anything, not even that he was in Sage mode just ago. On the horizon he just looks at, something like a giant, sky scratching blue pillar appeared but a moment after he spotted it, it vanished again. It is like he just imagined it. Thinking of it as an imaginary picture he calms down again, believing he just had a horrible nightmare he can't remember and goes back sleeping. After rearranging his sleeping set he sleeps again and deeper and better than before. The dream he now has is filled with nice pictures and memories that let him smile, have some tears and laugh again. Especially the smiles of all the Edo golems at the end of the war and before they were released from Kabutos control through all the teamwork of the Shinobi alliance and Naruto as well as Nagato and Itachi that could break Kabutos control by themselves to help release the others before vanishing too. Together they could prevent future access from Kabuto via Edo Tensai on them with an Uzumaki seal Nagato knew of. The "Thank you" of them still sounds in his ears. The nice dreams continue through the night and as the sun comes out he wakes up refreshed and happy.

They group pack their things and erase any traces of their location. Even some of the traps get de-installed and with getting back most materials. "Good, all is clean, Shen, Kou let us go on. We already are behind schedule and today I feel I could cover the whole region in one day but I know this won't work, however, still no reason to slow down. Take off!" Both now look a bit embarrassed with their strange view to the bottom side but walk anyway.

After a while the forest completely took over the region and makes it more difficult to go on. Everywhere are roots, small trees that offer falling traps and twigs whipping the face. One wouldn't think it can get worse. The skill of our Shinobi though is too high that this would slow them down or even stop them. At highest it is a bit annoying. The eve growing from the bigger branches create interesting looking curtains in the tunnel like way they walk along. Some of them have picky leafs and others just some small thorns. Most of them are just leafs or leafless brown lianas. The leafs have reddish veins in it with a small area connected to it in a mix of red and green. The rest of this leafs is in a green. Through the missing light here it is hard to tell if they are really dark green or actual light green. Each of the three just goes through the hanging plants and if they see they are thorny, they cut them in the last moment before they pass them. Naruto uses his special Kunai and for his luck because he reacts not fast enough to keep up with his speed it can extent the blade. Water can cut very good if the power of it is high enough. Many knifes or swords would get jealous of this blade if they could because it has this power and is barely longer than a simple hand and so small in comparison to them. The entire time the center blade is covered in green, like the wind houses there and the aquatic edge keeps his edgy form the whole time as well. Even when sometimes the edge gets taller as Naruto commands to cut something, it is always in perfect shape and the small waves veining it loose their most power before breaking out too much.
It continues like that and the ground they walk on gets softer as the trees become fewer and the plants growing less. Much moss covers the ground, implanting there is much wetness here. The steps they make have a dampened, mushy sound like boots stepping on mud. It is not like they would cross a swamp but it certainly rains much here. The ground is still good hard to offer nice grip without slowing down. It doesn't even need more strength to place a step just a bit strange feeling. Then Naruto asks something all of a sudden.