Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Small Gods ❯ Way of the Wind ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author's Note: to illuminate a point, this is a tale of growth. Naruto is as he has always been, but he will mature given time, as do all boys who become men.

Two weeks out in the naked sun had taught Naruto one thing; never curse the rain, you might not see it again.
It was very, very hot. The ground cracked beneath his feet when he walked. Scavenger birds circled in the sky and Naruto scowled at them. He was lying on the ground, star-fished on his back.
“I’m not dead yet ya buzzards!” He shouted to the sky. “Go away!” It was no use. The birds simply were not scared of a speck of lunch on the ground. Two weeks had not brought much progress other than one very hungry, thirsty, tired, sun-burnt young man. Naruto had nearly used up all of his supplies and the ointment in one of Hinata’s jars. It soothed the sunburn’s stinging immensely. He would have to remember to write to her when he sent letters back to Konoha, a nice thank-you, yup.
Naruto had blisters on the soles of his feet no ointment could cure. Trench foot he’d heard it called before, Sakura had told him. Though usually only soldiers on the field got it, he was pretty sure he had trench foot. What else did you call massive water filled blisters? Bubbles? Balloons? Baboons? Oh great! He was delirious too. Chucked to the loony bin far beyond his years.
It was high noon, the worst hour of the day to be laying out in the sun. The plain was a huge frying pan, he was an egg, fried and crispy. Now Naruto knew what food felt like as it sizzled on a grill. None too pleasant. He knew it wasn’t smart. He was too tired to stand. Exhaustion creeped into his system and clouded his judgment. Suddenly a fierce wind kicked up and dust began to stir violently over the plains.
“What the!” Naruto sputtered. “What is this?”
The wind died down. A great suction in the air pulled at Naruto’s skin and desert clothes. Sand whipped southwards and an abrupt darkness fell over him. He looked up towards it and saw…
“Aw, Hell no!”…The biggest wall of free flowing sand he had ever seen since Gaara’s ‘Desert Coffin’ in his first Chuunin exam. The storm was advancing rapidly. He had no time to think. Put all things in pack, put pack on back, run. And run he did, faster than he ever had in his life towards the northern rock plateaus. They were huge monolithic structures, pock-marked with caves and whirling shapes. Those rocks made Naruto uneasy. Until now he had avoided them purposely; now they were his only hope for survival. His running was hampered by the enormous dimensions of his pack. If he was any kind of a proper ninja he would have left it lying in the dirt. Naruto was far from proper however, and completely disregarded the notion. Nothing, touched his ramen, not even the high and mighty sand storm. Nyah!
The wind howled menacingly and tore at his robes with swirling claws.
Maybe he should… Just run!
Pain lanced up Naruto’s legs from his bleeding feet. The blisters had burst. Blood and water flowed from the gooey wounds and mixed with the blowing sands. It clotted horribly under his soles and chaffed at the already raw skin. It was agony. Gods how he yelled. The storm was close behind him and the cliffs were so far away. How could he keep running?
The distance between Naruto and the flat plateau wall was becoming closer, and so was the storm. Sandwiched between the two incarnations of nature Naruto realized he had a problem. Where in the rocks could he go? The nearest fissure was---twenty meters to the right! He dashed for it madly. Feet shocking the ground and his nerves with palpitating staccato pain and thunder. Insanity followed in his wake, the breath of the storm chased after him with lunatic glee. He swore he could hear a cackling on the wind. At the last moment, before the blazing wall of sand crashed into the rock face, Naruto plummeted into the fissure and stumbled blindly around a corner.
The storm wailed and screeched a bloody gale. Cheated of its prey it wraithed and scoured against the plateaus mindlessly searching for, something, it had forgotten. Naruto’s breathing came in long, short intakes and exhales. He was half relieved, half scared out of his wits. He had encountered bad weather before, but this took the cake! In a few moments shock took over and his world faded to a black memory.

Sunset came, went, and night fell over the scored surfaces of the plateaus. The storm had long since passed yet sand rustled as if blown by the wind. There was none.
Someone watched the sleeping form of a teenaged boy as he slept below the cliff, in the shadows. They stood and descended the sheer cliff of the fissure with ease. There was no sound as they bent, giant in hooded robes against the starlit sky, to let deft fingers ghost over the feet of the youth. Unnatural light filled the fissure long before dawn ever came. Someone worked in absolute silence and assassin worthy stealth. Naruto never felt a thing.

Naruto awoke, not for the first time in his life, to a very disconcerting situation. His now tattered robes were hanging the wrong way. The morning was cold and he yelped when rope unexpectedly chaffed at the bare skin of his wrists. He was bound, hand and foot, hanging upside-down ten feet from his pack on the ground. The rope was wrapped securely around his feet, dangling him from an outcropping ledge. He panicked.
“Ahh! What is this! Lemme down! Hey He-ey! Who did this eh?! I’ll wring your necks! Lemme down! OW!”
Naruto’s thrashing had earned him a face-plant trip into the side of the cliff. While cursing the blasted ways of nature blood flowed profusely from fresh grazing on his face.
“Damn it!” He shouted. “Why does this sort of thing always happen to me!”
He tried, unsuccessfully, to bend his body upwards to reach the knots holding his feet. Gravity pulled him back down sharply. Naruto felt very sick from this. His vision blanked with gray prickling behind the lids as blood rushed down into his head again. He hung there for an indeterminate amount of time until his stomach announced, loudly, that it needed food. Grraaagh!
Naruto’s mouth morphed into a pained wavering line.
“Aw man,” he whined. “I’m hungry!”
If there is one thing Naruto truly dislikes missing it’s food, at any meal of the day.
He began to wriggle back and forth to check for weaknesses in the knots. He found none, though pebbles showered him from where the rope scraped the ledge.
Naruto hung, dejected but stubborn. What could he do? More loose dirt trickled into his face and up his nose. He sneezed and then snorted violently.
“Hey, quite that!” He shouted vainly. A great clod of earth broke off and smacked him in the mouth.
“Bleh. Oi, that’s it!” He spluttered indignantly under the dirt. Naruto then ungracefully attempted to bend himself in half again to reach the knots at his feet. Swing once, grapple at air, swing twice, miss barely, swing thrice, contact! Naruto’s hands, though bound managed to grasp the very edge of the knots. He remained there, grinning at accomplishing this much, until the muscles in his arms and abdomen began to shake. Naruto wouldn‘t be able to hold on for long. Without thinking, he stretched his neck out as far as it could strain and anchored his teeth into the fibers of the rope on his hands. He began to gnaw at it.
The knot was expertly tied, tight and clean. Naruto’s jaw was aching badly by the time he had one loop loose. Both limbs and stomach were painfully cramping; if he didn’t get down soon the blood in his head could cause him to pass out again, or worse, brain damage. He couldn’t have that! There was too much he needed to do.
Ignoring the agonizing burn of his muscles and skin, Naruto bit the rope again and puuuuuull-ed.
It came free!
A flood of tingling warmth washed through the nerves in Naruto’s wrists as the rope slipped away. His breathing was becoming laboured though, as he struggled to hold onto the foot knots. Tugging frantically he found to his dismay that not only were the knots on his feet tighter, they were far more intricate than the one that had bound his hands.
“Gaah!” He shouted. “I need another set of hands!” That would certainly take care of his problem.
Another set of hands.
Another set of hands?
Kage bunshin…
“That’s it!” He shouted in revelation. Carefully releasing the knot on his feet Naruto put his hands together and performed the seals to make shadow clones. He made two. Puffing into existence on the cliff above him, he shouted up to the clones. “
“Hey untie me would ya? The faster I get down, the sooner we eat.”
The clones saluted him in kind.
“YOSH!” They shouted and set to work on the knots. It took over twenty minutes but they managed, smoking out of existence once their task was done. He gained a chakra foothold on the side of the cliff and then made his way down effortlessly. The ordeal was over, for now. The clones short memories slid into Naruto’s brain and he noted the intricacy of the knot. It was something he’d only seen in advanced manuals. Whoever had tied him up (the bastard), was no amateur.
He reached the bottom of the fissure with a new problem plaguing his thoughts. Who would string him up but leave him unharmed otherwise, suspended over his very own pack no less.
Naruto bent to pick up the fallen pieces of rope that had come off his bonds; no use in wasting perfectly good rope! That was when he noticed something strange. Pinned to his pack was a paper with neat and precise handwriting scrawled across its surface.
‘To the fox,’ it stated.
‘Laziness is the parent of all stagnation and weakness. These are the seeds of destruction. A single blade of wind can cut the mountains to sand. Sharpen your claws or I will use mine.’
“What the hell?”
It was unsigned. It was odd. It was a threat, not unlike Tsunade’s scolding. Naruto plopped down in the dust. Whoever had tied him up meant it as… a lesson? Where was the teacher?
“HEY!” He shouted as loud as he could. “BASTARD! JUST BECAUSE YOU LEAVE SOME CRACKED LETTER LYING AROUND DOESN’T MEAN I’M GONNA LISTEN!” Whether or not someone was listening was up to them.
Naruto scowled and huffed as he grabbed his pack and rummaged around inside to find something to eat. It was then he noticed two other very odd things. His supplies had been replenished and his feet had been treated and dressed. So immersed in getting down from the cliff before hand he hadn’t noticed the obvious lack of stinging in his soles.
“WHAA-AAT!?”
The sound of his stupefied amazement echoed off the sides of the fissure walls and up onto the plateau.
In the brilliant morning sun, someone smiled.