Sage

Ch.20

"You're lost again, aren't you?" Even with the heavy mist surrounding the group it was clear Fuu was the one speaking, her deadpan tone cutting through the fog like an overly sarcastic knife.

"I'm not lost! And don't say again like it's happened before, we were not lost. I just happened to be reading the map wrong." Naruto shot Fuu an annoyed look before returning his attention to the path in front of him; if he took his attention away it was quite likely they would stray off the road.

"By wrong, do you mean upside down?" This time it was Shizuku at the receiving end of Naruto's agitated glare; not that anybody could tell when seeing even a few feet in front of them was impossible.

"It was an honest mistake! I've never been to Kaminari no Kuni before." Shizuku just snickered into her baggy sleeves making Naruto wonder how she was dealing with the cold with such thin clothing.

"Yeah and if this keeps up I'll start to think we still aren't." This time Naruto found he didn't have the energy for a scathing retort, he just settled for pranking Fuu at a later date. He sighed wearily into his scarf, tilting his sugegasa back to peer up at the sky; it was useless though, the heavy water vapour in the air made it impossible to even see where the sun was.

"Come on, Konoha is just in a forest! It even has roads leading to it! Why do all the other Hidden Villages have to take their names so seriously? Suna is in the middle of the desert, Taki is nearly impossible to find unless you're lead there and Kumo is hidden so high in the mountains you either get lost in the mountains or pass out from the thin air!" After a few seconds of silence he realised he was ranting to deaf ears and slumped forward dejectedly; briefly he wondered what had happened to his wise monk persona.

"Don't worry Naruto, the merchants have to get there somehow. We'll find Kumogakure eventually." Naruto smiled appreciatively at Shizuku as she rested her hand on his shoulder; or at least he thought it was her.

"Actually, Kumogakure is a mostly militant Hidden Village. All merchant and domestic requirements are met in other villages further down in the mountains. The village itself is purely for housing the Shinobi, their families, the equipment stores, and the Raikage tower. Food and produce is moved to the Shinobi populace in large supply runs coordinated weekly. So in a way it's more of a large base camp than a village in the ways we define the term." Once again Naruto sunk down; Fuu's almost encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Shinobi once again proving to be spot on.

"Great." Shizuku frowned at Fuu, or at least where she thought Fuu was, the cloud bank they were trying to navigate through was really quite thick. On a positive note it wasn't raining, probably because they were actually in the clouds as opposed to under them; still a plus for Shizuku though.

"Can't you find Chakra sources in the fog with your eyes?" Naruto straightened up as they continued on, suddenly looking like he hadn't just broken down slightly.

"No, there's something about the cloud here that just bounces around the Chakra. Everything just looks like a vague blue haze." Shizuku looked down while Fuu looked thoughtful, it wasn't very different to her normal look but her lips pursed slightly.

"What about summoning something to fly us over the clouds?" Naruto turned to the former Taki Kunoichi, hand raised and mouth open, only for him to falter and just stare at the girl for a moment.

"That... is actually an excellent idea." He just blinked to himself for a moment as he wondered why he hadn't thought of that sooner. He put it down to not being familiar enough with his new path before moulding his Chakra and slamming his hand down. "Kuchiyose!" For a moment they weren't blinded by the mist as the small explosion of smoke pushed it away, giving the trio a brief glimpse of what Naruto had summoned.