The Wolf Inside - A Naruto Fanfic - Watty Award Winner 2013

Chapter 42

Edited 26/10/2019

Third Person's POV

A cool dampness hangs in the air, as the small group of Leaf Ninja traipse their way through the forest, chattering in hushed voices and pointing at everything as they walk. This island was already nothing like their home in the Land of Fire. While the air had been warm out on the ocean and even at the small bay they had left their ship in, as soon as they had entered the forest, the temperature had dropped into a refreshingly cool climate.

The island, though seemingly small, is a remote place with a harsher landscape than the Leaf Ninja had initially expected. Only metres from the bay, the land already begun to climb upwards towards the sheer cliffs, leaving the group with somewhat of a hike to get through.

The lush green forest is calm and serene around them, trees with thick trunks stretching high into the sky and blocking out most of the sunlight, their canopies spanning metres through the air. Birds chirp as they flit in and out of the trees, their colour feathers flashing brightly when exposed to the small sun streams breaking through the dense leaves high above.

"I didn't think we were going to have to do so much walking uphill" Shikamaru sighs, sweat dropping.

"Yeah" Choji agrees tiredly. "I thought we'd be able to walk right through the middle of the island or something."

"Didn't you guys see the mountains?" Kiba asks smartly, grinning as he looks around. "What's the big deal anyway? It's so cool here!"

"Arf arf!" Akamaru barks, running alongside Kiba, his tail wagging. He just wanted to run around and sniff everything!

"How far do we have to go Kakashi Sensei?" Naruto whines, jogging ahead to catch up with the Jonin, who is leading the group. "This mountain is steep and-"

"I don't know how far we have to walk Naruto" Kakashi interrupts, looking straight ahead, "But the Village is in the centre of this island. It's in the centre as a defence tactic, because this whole island is surrounded by sheer cliffs."

"The Village is down in a valley then?" Sakura pipes up, a thoughtful look on her face. "So no matter which way we went, we'd have to climb up one of these mountains?"

"Exactly" Kakashi confirms. "This is the easiest way to get there anyway. Unless you all feel like scaling some vertical cliffs?"

Everyone shakes their heads vehemently at this suggestion, not wanting to have to try and climb such formidable things. None of them felt like falling to their deaths today.

Sakura glances back over her shoulder as everyone unanimously decides to stop complaining about the long walk uphill, her eyes landing on Ashley.

Trudging slowly behind the rest of the group, Ashley stares at the ground through hooded eyes, her hands gripping the straps of her backpack. She'd been dragging behind this whole time and hadn't said a word since leaving the boat.

Sakura had tried to ask her what was wrong, but Ashley had just turned her head away and ignored the question.

What was it about this island that was upsetting Ashley so much? She hadn't behaved in such a strange way for so long....

"......What interesting insects" Shino murmurs to himself, pausing long enough to bend down and inspect a shiny Beetle scuttling across a rock.

"How pretty" Hinata adds approvingly, watching as the Beetle opens its wings and flies off. "M-Maybe we'll have a chance to go looking for bugs l-later Shino-kun?"