Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [2]

☾ 54 ☽

Before long, Tsunade had sent Tsukiko, Naruto and Yamato onto their 'S-rank mission' along with Might Guy and Yamashiro Aoba. They were to set off on a ship, which was filled with Kumogakure personnel, including the captain. Their journey took them across the sea where they passed what used to be the Land of Whirlpools, and around Kirigakure. They made their way through the canals of Land of Water until they reached Kumogakure's jurisdiction.

The mist was thick over the water still and Tsukiko wondered how long it would persist. She wanted to ask the ship captain Hikaru because no matter what she asked him, he seemed to go off on other tangents and show off about other things, especially about Kumo. While it was interesting to hear about his travels, Tsukiko was not really into talking today.

Guy had gotten rather seasick and he had been sent into the cabin to rest up and Aoba had gone with him in order to care for him. Tsukiko was on the deck, thinking about whatever she could as she stared down at the water beneath their ship.

Yamato was keeping his eyes on Tsukiko and Naruto as well, which was to be expected. Naruto himself was looking over the ship as well, looking for –

"Octopus, octopus, octopus!" Naruto exclaimed, his eyes searching the dark water.

"Octopus?" Yamato asked, walking over to where Naruto and Tsukiko were.

"An octopus is supposed to help guide me," Naruto replied and Tsukiko looked toward him curiously and wonder. "Remember? Giant Gramps Sage foretold it,"

"That's right, it was an octopus," Yamato said, clearly keeping Naruto engaged.

"He was right about this being an isolated island paradise," Naruto continued on anyway. "I'm sure there's no mistake about meeting someone to guide me,"

"Please start preparing to disembark soon," called out the captain, Hikaru.

"There's something big coming up in front of us," Tsukiko spoke up, squinting through the mist. "It seems like we have reached our destination for sure,"

"No kidding, Tsukiko-Chan!" Naruto agreed excitedly.

But as the ship grew even closer to this island, Tsukiko was surprised to find that it was in fact far from a typical resort – it was gigantic, and was filled with grey spikes protruding out several kilometres into the air. From what could be seen, large flesh-eating creatures that reminded her of the Forest of Death in Konoha, and to top it off, there were torn cloaks and bones littering the island. It did not look nice at all and Tsukiko could already find herself sighing.

"An... island paradise?" Naruto asked, his face bland upon finding out where they were going.

"It's like Konoha's Forest of Death," Hikaru informed them. "But this is a bit more extreme,"

"I wonder why they call it a resort?" Tsukiko muttered. "Is it a resort for those creatures and we're the fresh meat coming in for dinner tonight?"

"You're funny, but don't worry, it's safe," Hikaru replied, taking it a bit too easy. "As long as we don't provoke them, the creatures are quite docile. Except for one..."

"Except for one?" Tsukiko repeated. "One what?"

"What part of this place is a paradise?!" Naruto screamed to the sky, upset as he flailed his limbs around. "You're a fool, Giant Gramps Sage!"

"For one that lives along the shore..." Hikaru answered.

But the captain was swiftly cut off as a large tentacle appeared over the bridge, making Tsukiko rather uncomfortable. It was pinkish in colour but looked much darker and ominous in its posture and in the dense mist. More of its body revealed itself and Tsukiko saw that it was a gigantic squid with equally big black and yellow eyes.