Blood of a Lost Girl (Book 1, Naruto)

Chapter 16

As it turns out, we were right. They had no clue where Konoha was. I realised this the minute we walked the opposite direction of the Village. Well, not so much the opposite direction as right past it. We'd been heading straight to it from the Land of Waterfalls, but then we basically went passed, right to the border of the Land of Noodles. I know. Seems like they just made that name up. I shook my head at the name. Absolutely ridiculous. From there we went to the Land of Hot Water and straight to the Land of Needles. We were so close to the Land of Waterfalls now -again, but the villagers had not yet noticed. They'd asked us why it was taking so long to reach our destination and Kurenai-sensei­ had come up with the perfect excuse. She told them that we were avoiding the more dangerous routes and areas for their safety. They bought it. We'd been on the road for 3 days already. Had they known where Konoha was, they would have realised we were taking 3 days too long to reach the Village. Unfortunately, the survivors of Hisano Village were still talking about their treasure –telling us more about it. If it had been a hallucinogenic gas, it would've been out of their systems already. That lead us to believe that they were all under a type of Genjutsu, but that was also a dead-end. We'd tried several ways –subtly of course- to release them of it with no luck. This was a troubling situation and we had no clue what to do about it.

I leaned against the elm tree behind me, my back aching. We were taking yet another break and I was thankful for it. I'd been standing guard at night for some time, only switching with others every now and then. I was the one who volunteered for it though, but it felt like all I've been doing is standing recently. I haven't really had much rest and I wasn't in the best condition. I felt like I should get some rest, but I just couldn't. I have tried –oh, believe me I have- but I'm restless. Something was really bothering me, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. It was like there was a constant tingling at the back of my neck. I absolutely hated it, because no matter how much I scratched at the annoying itch it just would not go away. My neck was sore from the amount of rubbing and scratching I've been doing. "Treasure this, treasure that... There is no treasure." I grumbled under my breath. This entire situation was bothering me. These villagers were so sure that they had a priceless treasure, but there was nothing there. It wasn't hallucinogenic gas and it wasn't a Genjutsu. They weren't all that traumatised either. So what was it? What was going on? Were we in danger? What could we do?

Right at that moment Kurenai-sensei called for us. It was time to go again. I sighed as I pushed myself off of the tree. I stretched and followed the group from behind again. We were moving again, but this time I really didn't feel like focusing on where we were going. However, when I realised that my surroundings looked familiar I knew we were back to where we started. We were close to the Land of Waterfalls' border again. I noticed the Villagers started looking around. They were confused and they'd begun to mutter under their breaths. They were noticing that we were back where we started. "Don't worry. We just had to double back a bit because Neji had spotted some bandits. We're trying to avoid them this time around." This only helped settle them a bit. They were getting suspicious, but luckily they didn't voice their concerns and we continued on.

A loud rumbling made me look up at the sky. There was a dark raincloud right above us. I hadn't even noticed how dark it had gotten because I'd been more focused on keeping a lookout for any possible attackers. "We'd better find cover soon." Kiba cautioned, sniffing the air. "A storm's coming." Thunder roared again. It was loud, and that meant it was close. We really did need to get some shelter soon. Just as the thought crossed my mind, a drop of cold water landed on my nose. I shook my head and looked up as more started falling, rubbing my nose.

"Let's pick up our pace!" Kurenai-sensei called from in front of the group. I watched as the men took over for the women carrying the chest so that they could move quicker and I saw my teammates each carry one of the elders. It was only Kurenai-sensei and I who didn't carry anyone. The women were able to walk fast enough so our pace quickened considerably as well. However, even so, the sudden cloudburst got us before we got close to shelter. The only shelter we had was that of the trees, but even that wasn't enough. The water dripped into my eyes and I had to wipe them at least 3 times a minute. The rain hit my face hard and left a trail of shivers in their wake as they fell onto my neck. It was winter and it was raining – not a very good combination. I trudged on through the rain even though I could barely see in front of me. Luckily, I could still sense my team mates. It felt like we'd been walking for at least an hour in the rain –never finding any shelter- before it started lightening up. When it did, I could finally see in front of me and I gasped when I did. In front of me were my shocked team mates, but the Villagers were gone. Only the chest still remained, lying on the muddy ground.