24 24: Late On Time
'How far can a mostly untrained kid go in like a week of travelling?' Seija complained to the universe.
Her Wulgs were still following the trail Nagato had left behind but it was taking longer than expected. They needed to stop to be sent back to their realm so that they could eat, which meant that Seija had now spent three full days off-road. And every few hours that she wasn't following Nagato's scent trail it was slowly getting weaker and weaker, forcing the Wulgs to slow down and check the trail frequently.
'At least the further we travel the more recent the scent becomes. So as long as we keep moving it shouldn't vanish entirely.' She reasoned.
As she was thinking this, her Wulgs started whining at her again.
"Alright, alright! We'll stop here. Good work so far today guys, you've been running for over eight hours straight." She unsummoned them and unfurled the scroll on her back, quickly navigating the large canvas to the 'travel and camping' section. She pulled out a large, simple gazebo that she and a dozen shadow clones assembled in under a minute and pinned down into the relatively solid earth.
Giving the ground under the gazebo's shelter a quick blast of Fire Style to dry it out a bit and silently wishing that she had awoken Scorch Release instead of her other Kekkei Genkai to make the job easier, she sat down and unfolded her map of the country.
'Ok... there's a town somewhere close by to here. North west. Closer to Amegakure itself. That seems to be the direction that the Wulgs were going.' She wondered if she should take the risk to go off the trail on a whim.
'Hmm... No. Bad idea. If we lose the trail we might not find it again until it's already gone. If I end up taking longer because of this then I can still be satisfied knowing that I was just playing it safe.'
Content with her reasoning, Seija removed a small gas cooker from her scroll, along with some cooking utensils.
- - -
After finishing her simple meal and rinsing out her bowl with some basic Water Style, Seija sat down to read her system messages. It had been some time since she had last checked everything, and her fellow reincarnators had been sensible enough to restrict their usage of the Global Chat to relevant information only, so that it wouldn't get clogged up. They were waiting for the Group Chats to finally unlock before they could really start communicating with each other regularly.
[-World Message-]
[-Reincarnator #21 has been born.-]
There were actually quite a few births she had missed. That one had been before her 7th birthday.
[-Reincarnator #25 has been born.-]
And that was the most recent one, about two months ago. No deaths this time, though that could change now that the Second Shinobi World War had started.
Ah, the war. The one annoying chunk of Seija's memories that had stubbornly remained hidden until the day her Sharingan awoke. With that, she could confidently say that all of her memories were now available to her. Whether she could actually remember their contents in a pinch was another story altogether, but at least they weren't locked anymore.
A few noteworthy topics had been discussed in the Global Chat. One on particular got her attention.
[-Global Chat-]
[-Reincarnator #12: "How far is everyone into their training? I'd like to think I'm doing well, but I'm still only barely awakened so I want to hear how everyone else is doing."-]
[-Reincarnator #6: "Number #12, this kind of conversation should be restrained until the Group Chats unlocks. Not long now until #13 awakens. Please be patient."-]
[-Reincarnator #5: "Ah come on, number #6, live a little! The kid's right, maybe a little competition would be good for us! So, how is everyone doing? I've just hit my second year at Iwa's Academy, and I think I'm doing pretty damn well for myself. I'm 3rd best in my class over all."-]
[-Reincarnator #2: "Heh. Not to brag (I'm totally bragging), but I graduated from Konoha's Academy way early and I even got sent on a mission the other day! Like I always say, way ahead of y'all."-]
[-Reincarnator #8: "Let me guess, number #2: You got sent to find that damn cat, didn't you?"-]
[-Reincarnator #2: "Damn... Guess this world really is that predictable. Yeah, I got sent to find that damn cat. Tora the First, I'll have you know! The very start of her bloodline!"-]
[-Reincarnator #4: "Wait... what cat? I don't remember a cat..."-]
[-Reincarnator #2: "Oh! Right, almost forgot. You guys stay safe ok? The Second Great War has started, so if you get offered any missions above D-rank, don't risk it if you have the choice. C-rank or higher will mean leaving your village, and that means death for kids like us. I talk a big game, I know, but even I can accept that I'm just not ready to head out yet. I don't know what I was thinking a few years back when number #4 first awoke..."-]
[-Reincarnator #7: "There's a WAR?! Fuck these memories, I'm missing so much important shit!"-]
Seija closed the conversation there. That was interesting. It seemed to imply that different reincarnators got their memories in a different order.
'Come to think of it, didn't number #2 know about Konan way before I did as well? It seems most of his knowledge has been for the earlier years of the timeline. Lucky him.'
She idly wondered if he would ever meet her mother, since he was in Konoha right then, but quickly shook that thought from her mind when she remembered the nature of his system.
'Gross...'
She relaxed a little longer before getting ready to pack up and resummon her Wulgs, when she felt a ping at the edge of her passive chakra detection range.
'Hm?' She activated her Byakugan.
Three figures were hiding over a ridge, looking straight at her little camp. Their general clothing scheme suggested they were Iwa-nin, although they weren't wearing their headbands. They were weak, likely just a Genin scouting party.
She stood up and turned to face them directly. Not like they could see her eyes under the mask, but they could tell they'd been spotted.
The one at the front quickly ducked his head down behind the rocks and signaled the other two with him.
They very clearly weaved some hand signs before diving into the earth beneath them, where she could see them swimming towards her.
'I swear if you don't stop before you reach me I'm going to kick your asses.' She grumbled to herself.
They did not stop. In fact, they sped up as they got closer and closer.
*Sigh*
She slammed both of her hands down on the earth in front of her.
[Earth Style: Rupturing Earth Palm]
The ground in front of her jolted and cracked apart into large lumps, destabilising it and promptly booting both subterranean shinobi out into the air.
"What the?!"
"Ow..."
They quickly stood up from where their rough landing was and drew their kunai to face her. Seija had to restrain herself from facepalming at their ineptitude.
"Look, just leave me alone. I don't want to fight you." She told herself more than she told them. That sensation from long ago, when she first began sparring with her mother was starting to return. The feeling of wanting to fight, to feel the thrill of real combat. She pushed it down, for now.
They shared a glance and looked at her strangely.
"Kid, you know this is a war, right?"
"Of course I do. And I don't really have anything against Iwagakure right now. So leave."
They raised their kunai and the one on the left grinned at her. "Heh. Nah, you could be anyone, after all. Moreover, that giant scroll on your back? If it's full of supplies then you're either a logistics runner for another Village, or you're a fool begging to get mugged. Either way, we're taking it!"
They rushed towards her, and she idly noted the third one circling around behind her.
"Alright. Don't say you weren't warned." She too readied herself.
The one on the right dashed ahead of the first one and prepared to thrust his kunai straight at her. He didn't even bother to throw it.
'Honestly, what do they teach these people about fighting? Whatever.'
[Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu]
The fireball she released from her mouth was bigger than his whole body. Needless to say, the right man failed to dodge, and was promptly incinerated.
"Wh-..." The other one stopped dead in his tracks. Staring blankly at the pile of ash that used to be his brother. Seija stared too.
'Another one dead... fuck. No time to think about this. I'll just tone down the chakra usage-'
"You..." The other man's expression turned crazed. "I'll kill you!!!"
But Seija didn't give him the chance.
[Earth Style: Spear of Earth]
Pushing out her right hand, a spear of earth was conducted to extend out from the floor beneath him, aiming for his left arm...
And instantly impaling his heart from the wrong angle when he tried dodging to the left.
'GOD DAMN IT! How fucking hard is it to just dodge to the right, you dumbass?!'
The third man lept out of the ground behind her, kunai raised like the other two. She caught his wrist with her left hand, pulling it down to bring him to her level and making him stumble forwards.
And with her right hand she formed a steel fist and slammed it home into his gut, full strength.
As the strike connected, she noted idly in the back of her mind that she had never used the combined power of her physical strength and Steel Release Kekkei Genkai on an opponent besides her Jonin-ranked mother before.
She certainly hadn't expected her fist to go straight through the muscle and organs of his torso and only just stop at cracking his spine.
"F-Fucking... monster..." Was his last word before he died from the hole in his stomach.
'...'
"[Seija. How are you feeling?]"
'I'm not sure what to think about all this. That was... fun. Too fun. Killing isn't supposed to be fun, Firewall.'
"[You should not worry too much. I think you did well.]"
'I can always rely on you for support, huh? Thanks. Now, I believe we have somewhere to be. Somewhere where there aren't any more bloody Genin to accidentally kill.'
She cleaned the blood off her arm and packed away her stuff. Summoning the Wulgs again, she set off once more wearing a spare shirt and right glove.
- - - - -
"Nagato, come on. We need to go!" Konan called out to the red-haired boy as she equipped her gas mask.
"...Ok..."
"I get how you feel man, I'm gonna miss Chibi too, but we can't lose this opportunity. We can always mourn later." Yahiko tried to reassure him.
'Haaaah... I know he's right. But still... poor Chibi...' It didn't really do much to quell Nagato's sadness at the loss of his dog. He'd only really known the puppy for a week, around the same time that he'd known Yahiko and Konan after Konan found him starving in the street.
"Alright... Let's find those Leaf Ninja." Nagato finally stood up and agreed to go with them to see the ninja who they'd spotted fighting Hanzo.
That Hanzo. The one that rules the country they live in. Like Yahiko said, they couldn't miss this chance to meet a team of shinobi who could survive a battle against him.
- - -
Later...
They had to haul themselves out of the lake they'd fallen into.
'That... was way too close.' Nagato thought to himself.
They had followed the Sannin for well over a full day now, and had just suffered a serious brush with death when they got too close to the battle and were blasted into the water below the cliff they'd been standing on. Nagato's Rinnegan had protected them from the worst of the damage on instinct, though none of them knew of this fact.
As they walked along the cliff edge and into the cave, Nagato silently wished he could've somehow brought Seija with him. She was strong. Having her around would reassure him.
'Though I probably wouldn't have met these two if she was with me. There's no way I would've starved if I had her skills on hand.' Nagato honestly, genuinely wished that he had kept going with Mrs Himiko's shinobi training. All he could do was stick a leaf to his forehead and make a very unconvincing intangible clone of himself. He should've learned some of that 'Taijutsu' stuff, at least for self defense...
- - - - -
Seija arrived at the town on her map and had to take a slightly different approach. Mostly because she couldn't exactly ride through an entire town with a pack of huge canine monsters, no matter how cute and fluffy they could pretend to be. Fortunately she didn't need to check whether or not Nagato was still in the town. She simply told her Wulgs to circle around the entire town, if the scent trail continued off somewhere else, then that means he left it. If there is no other trail, then that means he's still there.
'Bingo. They've found a new trail heading east. I don't even have to enter the town at all.' Her mother clearly didn't call her a genius for nothing... If you just ignore the dead bodies of the four men that she'd failed to hold back against.
Following it for just a couple of minutes she came across a cave absolutely flooded with his scent. Unfortunately, it looked totally abandoned. Only a few pieces of perishable food had been left behind to rot; everything else the kids must've taken with them.
'At least this confirms it. Nagato has already met up with Yahiko and Konan. They lived together in this cave before they left and eventually found Jiraiya and his two teammates, Tsunade and Orochimaru, the newly titled 'Sannin'.'
She set out again, commanding her Wulgs to follow the newest trail out of the cave. As they traveled further they seemed to become agitated. They kept sniffing at the ground and curling up their noses, snarling slightly at some particular puddles on the ground. Seija decided to scan the surroundings a little more carefully and came to a realisation once she started spotting the kunai, shuriken, and bodies littering the field, half buried in the mud.
A battlefield. And the Wulgs were avoiding the water on the ground, which implied poison. And everyone who had watched the series knew that a poisoned battlefield in the Land of Rain meant that Hanzo had been there.
At the edge of the battlefield they came across a shallow grave, much like the ones outside Nagato's house. Though much smaller this time.
''Here lies Chibi...' Nagato's dog that he found when he was starving? Damn shame...'
She left the grave in peace and continued following the trail.
Half a day later she finished crossing through both the battlefield, a ruined village and a poisonous mist-filled forest which thankfully the Wulgs were able to navigate to dodge the worst of it - though she did need to stop and heal one of them when it strayed a little too close to the mist and inhaled some of it - and the pack finally arrived at a large, artificial cave-riddled cliffside next to a massive dam and the reservoir beside it.
She looked through the walls of the caves with her Byakugan. There they were. Six chakra signatures. Three that were rather small though one of them, Nagato of course, was somewhat larger. The other three were significantly more powerful, around the level of her own mother. Now she just had to decide:
Did she want to reveal herself now, or until after Jiraiya takes them under his wing?
'I'll wait if I can. After meeting in the cave they'll head out along the top of that huge concrete dam. That's where Jiraiya will agree to look after them for a while, and the other two Sannin will leave.'
