Fate Of the Wolf Goddess (Naruto Fanfic x ATLA aspects)

Reunion with old friends and new family

"It's you! It's really you! Kimiko-san, it's been so long since---" Reiko cuts herself off and her eyes widen at me. "Why aren't you cloaking yourself? That's dangerous, Kimiko-san."

"Um. . . cloaking?" I ask. "Oh, wait, you mean dowsing my chakra signature?" I quickly focus on my chakra, imagining it like a fire dimming into a small flame. Something I've done for years with the help of ninken training and shinobi training. "There. All done."

Reiko shakes her head at me, like I am the child misunderstanding a simple lesson. "Nonono, Kimiko-san. Your presence is still too... how do you say? Loud. You must cover yourself. You are exposed." She emphasizes, and I start to feel like it too. The way she says it makes me feel naked, like damn. What am I doing wrong then?

"How so?"

"Like you are. . . prey or looking for a mate. Wait, are you? I don't know when Dires mate. Surely not during the raining season." She states quizzically, but she lost me at Dires.

I almost ask her what's a Dire, but my pride keeps that question lodged in my throat like a hostage. I don't want to seem ignorant of the ways of the wild. Especially in front of Reiko. She was such a sweet little thing when we met, following after me and Junichi with stars in her eyes.

Suddenly, I am reminded that she took down a giant wild boar with razor-sharp tusks.

Maybe it's worth it.

"I'm not familiar with the term 'Dires' Reiko. I just traveled here. Where am I?"

"Well, I just call it home now. Other creatures call it the 'Damp Forest'. Some the 'Forest of Bones and Earth. But I think it's most commonly known as the----"

"Shikkotsu Forest." I answer for her in a whisper. "The Damp Bone Forest."

"Hai!" She says happily. "So, you've heard of it in your travels, then?"

"I can't believe it. . . I made it here."

"Ancestral home to Legendary Creatures and other Earthly creations." Reiko says. "That's what Nii-san and I learned when we came here. It's our home. Yours too, Kimiko-san. You can only find the way here if you are called here."

"Called by who?" I ask, awestruck as I look at the forest around me, but still able to follow the conversation.

"No one really knows." She shrugs. "Most say Mother Nature. Or whatever god their species worship. But hey, it's not safe here for you. Find your pack, Kimiko-san. I've got to go. Junichi is gonna be mad I followed my food all the way out the forest again. We're not supposed to stray too far from our hunting grounds." She turns to leave, grabbing her kill in her jaws.

"WAIT! At least tell me how to cloak myself. My chakra is that noticeable? This is the level i have it at when I hunt."

She drops her kill again and looks back. "Maybe in the smaller, human-infested forests that's enough----- but not here, Kimiko-san. I shouldn't be able to sense it at all unless you are right up on me and about to ambush. And even then, the best hunters here sometimes miss the killshot because the chakra is sensed. Here in Shikkotsu, chakra isn't supposed to exist in predators. It is cloaked. It gives away our presence faster than scent. You have to mask it with your aura."

"My what?"

"That's what Sensei calls it. Your life energy. He helped us merge, no wait. That is the wrong word. . . . acclimate, yes. Acclimate when we got here. We were doing the same as you and not hiding it."

"But that's what chakra IS. Life energy. I'm sorry, I just don't understand." I tell her.

How can I completely erase my chakra? I've never done that before. I can shape it, change its form, squish it down and bundle it up inside of my clones when it's in excess, but erase it? That's every shinobi's dream---- to erase their presence completely. It can be done in every other aspect-----scent, sight, sound---- except through chakra. That's why sensory nin are so highly valued and hated. Even the best shinobi can be spotted by them.