Ch. 11

Naruko hiked her dark green bag up with a small grunt as she walked next to Jiraiya. Her blue eyes seemed to sparkle in the morning light as she swiveled her head back and fourth, taking in their surroundings with a small smile on her face.

The forest around them was thick and lush. The morning dew still weighed the grass down beneath her sandal covered feet and the early morning fog still permeated the air, filling here lungs with clean, chilly morning oxygen.

They rarely had mornings like this back in the leaf village simply because the weather was usually always warm and humid. It never got cold enough during the night for dew to form and since the village wasn't located near any large lakes or rushing rivers, fog like this was near non-existent.

She looked down at the map in her hands. Her blue eyes raking over the paper as she brought her right hand up to point at a small piece of land located between fire country and wind country with the word 'River' printed in bold black letters over it.

"So we're here?" She asked the larger man. Jiraiya peaked down at the map from over her shoulder and bobbed his head.

"That's right brat." He smirked at the small disgruntled huff she let out after he called her 'brat.'

"I never knew fire country was so big." Naruko muttered out, mostly talking to herself." It took us two weeks just to get here." They had just crossed the border between the two countries a little over an hour ago.

"Mmhhmm." Jiraiya hummed." Believe it or not, other then the minor countries, the land of fire is the smallest out of all of the other major countries." He told her and she glanced up at him before going back to the map in her hands.

It had been two weeks since they left the leaf village behind and with every step she took away from her former home, the lighter her shoulders felt. Out here she wasn't carrying the weight of being a jinchuriki around, she was just another kid traveling around the continent with her teacher.

For the last two weeks they had been traveling towards river country so Naruko could work on her water walking. When asked why they had to go to an entirely different country to train something like that, Jiraiya just grinned at her and laughed out a 'You'll see!' Before chuckling to himself like he was laughing at some inside joke that she wasn't privy to.

Jiraiya stopped walking and it took a few more steps from the smaller blond to do the same. Lowering the map, she glanced back at him with a raised brow.

"You hear that kid?" He asked as he cupped his right ear and turned his head a little as if he was listening to something far off in the distance.

Naruko looked around the forest but neither saw or heard anything out of the ordinary. Birds were chirping above them, squirrels were scurrying up trees and critters were crawling through the brush around them.

"No?" Naruko finally answered, looking back to the man with a curious look on her face.

"It's water, that way." He pointed in a seemingly random direction." And it's moving, probably a river or a stream." He told her and began walking in the direction he pointed to. He waved Naruko after him and she rolled the map up and walked with him.

It took them about ten minutes to get to their new destination and when Naruto cleared the tree line after her new mentor, she looked around in wonder.

"Wow!" She called out as she dropped her bag to the damp ground next to her.

The body of water was indeed a river. A very large river that could easily fit one of them big pirate ships she's read about in those little children books she used to love. The water wasn't moving fast enough to sweep her away but it was still moving at a lazy pace.

"Perfect!" Jiraiya clapped once." Okay brat!" He turned to her." Go get changed into your bathing suit and work on your water walking.

"What!" Naruto cried out." But it's like chilly as hell!" She pouted when he shrugged her complaint off.

"I know." He smiled evilly." That's the whole reason we came here. Think about the cold water as motivation to learn water walking faster." He was mentally patting himself on the back, the blond just knew it.

"Fine." She let out a miserable groan." And while I'm turning myself into an ice cube, where will you be? There's no ladies to perv on." She suddenly glared at him." And I'll kill you before I let you perv on me you stinky old man!" She pointed at him, her finger holding enough feminine wrath the smite a kage.

Jiraiya blanched at the mere thought.

"No thanks brat." He waved her off." You way to young for me." He shivered again for good measure." And to answer your question, I'll be heading out to find the nearest town to grab some supplies." He answered." Not sure if I'll be back by tonight so just set up camp here and I'll meet back up with you in the morning." He instructed with a small shrug.

"You're gonna go find a brothel aren't you?" She deadpanned, her question sounding more like a statement. This had been a recurring theme since they let the leaf village. He'd tell her to train all day and then camp out in the woods while he went into town to 'get supplies'. Yet the last time she went to find him he was hold up in a brothel surrounded by scantly clad women while he told them stories of 'the courageous Jiraiya's' past exploits.

"An adult has needs brat, you won't understand 'till you're older."

"You're pathetic." Jiraiya face faulted at the deadpanned insult from Naruko as she turned away from him and crouched down to open her bag.

"Gah! You just don't understand your amazing Sensei!" He began to walk away while grumbling." Dumb brat just doesn't understand…need my reasearch for my book.."

He vanished into the tree line while Naruko pulled a dark blue one-piece bathing suit from her bag and stood up.

Quickly getting changed she made her way to the rivers edge and frowned. Her toes were already freezing and she was a little apprehensive about actually doing this in such cold waters but she hardened her resolve with a small sigh.

She began to focus chakra into the soles of her feet as she took a few small, wobbly steps onto the waters ever changing surface. Her arms were held out at her sides as she tried to keep her balance but she quickly lost it and plummeted face first into the freezing water.

"Son of a!-" she cried out as she burst from the river and onto dry land. Her arms wrapped around her shivering form.

"Sh-sh-shit!" Her teeth chattered as she glared bloody daggers at the water before her.

***

Naruko sat on a neatly cut log, her blue eyes unblinking as she gazed into the campfire before her. She had her tent set up to her right a little ways away from the fire and a quickly drying towel draped over her bare shoulders.

After training until about an hour before sunset she had made her way out of the freezing water and dried off, forgoing a shirt, she had simply put her pants on over her damp bathing suit and slipped her sandals on before getting camp set up.

She had boiled some drinking water and placed her sleeping bag in her tent, along with an extra blanket. Jiraiya had warned her about the chilly nights in the land of river before they even left the land of fire and she really didn't wanna freeze to death.

She caught a small rabbit and had harvested its meat before cooking and eating it. Now she was just staring into the fire, surrounded by the darkness of the night and the sounds of crickets.

Her head perked up when the crickets suddenly stopped. Blue eyes scammed the darkness around her, thanks to the glare of the fire before her, she could barely see the tree line to her right. Her shoulders tensed a little as a few twigs snapped a few yards past the tree line.

"Jiraiya?" She called out in a hushed whisper. She waited a few seconds for a reply but when none came adrenaline began to pump through her.

Taking a few deep, calming breaths, she fell silent and tilted her head a little. Her ears twitched a little as she picked up a few bats chirping over head and the sound of another twig snapping under something. Though it was much closer this time. Not long after she began to hear the quiet whispers of people talking.

Standing quickly, the towel around her shoulders dropped to the ground forgotten and Naruko took a mighty leap backwards away from her camp and disappeared in the darkness.

Seconds later, four men burst through the tree line with weapons drawn and dressed in old, obviously uncared for, samurai armor. Two of them held katanas while one held a long wooden spear tipped with a long metal spike.

The last and largest man there, he easily towered over the other three men, carried a huge two handed axe. The axe blade was easily the size of Naruko herself.

The blond watched the four men from her hiding spot in a tree not to far away from them and her camp. Her heart was thumping in her chest as she tried to control the adrenaline surging through her.

"Where the hell is this brat?" The largest man spoke, his voice laced with both annoyance and authority. He heaved the great axe up to rest on his shoulder before glaring at one of the swordsmen.

" I don't know." The much smaller man replied as he sheathed his weapon, the other two following suite not long after." She was here sir, I swear! Look at the camp." He motioned towards set up around him." She must've just left." He added.

"You said she was trying to walk on water earlier right?" The one with the spear pipped up." She's probably one of them ninja kids." He added." Probably heard us coming."

"I don't care what she is." The axe wielder spoke gruffly." You know how much money we could get for a ninja brat? We'd be set for a few months just from selling her, let alone those other brats we got now."

Blue eyes glared down at the men. We're these guys some sort of human traffickers? Was that an actual thing? She didn't quite know. But she did know that these guy's knew she was here. The one with a sword had spied on her while she was training and she didn't even notice!

That took a chunk of pride right out of her. Luckily for her and unluckily for them, she'd take that pride back.

With narrowed blue eyes, the young blond sent chakra to her legs and rocketed off the tree branch. Her first target?

That big fucker with the huge axe.