Chapter 3

Minato looked towards his students and saw that they were a little shaken by this sudden sorrowful roar that still even now continued. "There is so much sorrow and despair in its voice.." commented Rin with a look of sympathy, being the kind and sweet child she was, she felt kind of saddened hearing this roar of despair.

Suddenly as if responding to its cries, the sky started to darken, the winds started to quicken, and the once clear and sunny sky was dark and gloomy. The group of four's hair fluttered in the wind, they stood in place listening to the sound of the cries before Minato got out of his daze and immediately went to investigate, "I'll go and investigate, you three can come with me or stay here and watch our food," he said while glancing at his students.

The trio wanting to see what was behind these beastly cries immediately agreed to go with him, "we'll go with you, sensei," said the trio in unison, hearing their answer Minato nodded before using shunshin to disappear followed by the trio.

A/N: Shunshin no Jutsu, also known as the Art of Teleportation, and Body Flicker

The group of four jumped from tree to tree rushing towards the general direction they heard the cries coming from, "be careful, the Forest of Death has serval large creatures living in it," stated Minato.

"Whoa really? what type of creatures live here?" questioned Obito curiously.

Before Minato could answer, the constant cries they were hearing suddenly stopped, the winds started to die down, and the gloomy clouds in the sky started to slowly dissipate.

Minato immediately stopped in his tracks, causing the trio to also stop in their tracks, Obito not anticipating Minato to suddenly stop, bumping into his back, "ouch, why did you stop so suddenly sensei?" he asked rubbing his nose that was a little red from the collision.

Minato not minding Obito bumping into his back, after all, it was kind of his fault, said, "shush, look down below," following his gaze, the trio saw a small, cat-sized black lizard with bat-like wings whimpering on the ground.

"What is that thing?" questioned Kakashi curiously, he has never seen a creature that looked anything like it.

"I don't know, but's probably the thing we heard crying," said Minato, his gaze never leaving the lizard on the ground.

"Sensei, is this the creature you were talking about earlier?" asked Obito, this question got the attention of not only Rin, Kakashi, but also Minato.

Minato was quiet for a moment before answering, "no, within the forest are several large and deadly creatures such as leeches, tigers, bears etc. which have grown to abnormally large sizes for unknown reasons. The forest is full of mysterious and unexplainable things, this creature might just be one of those mysterious things. These mysterious things are the reason the forest is off-limits."

A/N: The large animals are cannon, other than that some of the things in the paragraph above are bullshit. Did you know the Forest of Death and Hokage tower were created by Hashirama during an attempted assassination?

While Minato was explaining, the small lizard slowly got off the ground and wiped its tears before running out of the area towards the north. Seeing the creature running out of the area the group of four followed closely behind.

The small creature would sometimes stumble over its own legs as if it wasn't used to running. Rin seeing the small creature running with its stumpy little legs couldn't help but say, "aw~it's so cute, I really want to hug it~"

"Calm down Rin, we don't know if it's dangerous," said Minato.

"Sorry sensei," said Rin, looking down embarrassed.

'Cute!' thought Obito while looking at the embarrassed Rin.

They followed the small creature for 10 minutes straight, the creature looked as if it was searching for something but it was lost. 'What is it looking for?' wondered Minato while looking at the lost little creature down below.

The creature seemed to get tired of its endless search and stopped in its tracks before spreading its wings. It started to flap its wings, creating a little dust cloud under its body.

"is it trying to fly?" questioned Rin while looking at the cute animal flapping its wings.

"It seems like it," said Kakashi.

The creature's paws slowly but surely left the ground and started to ascend towards the sky, in no time it was already 30 meters in the sky. It seemed to be surprised to fly as its expression brightened up, "rawr rawr!" said the creature when suddenly it started to wobble in the air and started to fall at extreme speeds.

"Oh no it's falling!" exclaimed Rin horrified, she didn't want to see such a cute little animal die. As she tried to leap from the tree they were to save the little animal she was stopped by Kakashi.

"Don't be rash Rin, we don't know if it's dangerous or if its parent is nearby," he said while holding Rin's arm tightly. Rin was about to say something when they were interrupted by a loud thud.

Horrified, Rin turned towards the direction of the sound, there was a large dust cloud blocking her view of the area and when the dust cloud dissipated the group of four saw the little creature slowly getting up from the ground, a determined look could be seen on its face.

Seeing the little animal was ok, Rin sighed in relief, "thank goodness it's ok," she muttered.

The creature once again started flapping its wings and ascended to the sky before wobbling and falling to the earth. This cycle went on for 30 minutes straight the small creature never stopped once, the group of four watched in aw as it kept failing and trying over and over again.

"Incredible for such a small child to have this much determination is truly admirable," muttered Minato under his breath.

'Wow,' thought Kakashi.

'You can do it!' thought Rin, she had been cheering on the little guy in her mind for a while now.

The little guy finally got the hang of flight, after 30 minutes of trial and error it had accomplished its goal. it kept ascending until it was out of the group's view.

Seeing the weird creature disappear into the sky, Minato stood up from his previous sitting position and turned towards the trio, and said, "we'll have to report this discovery to the Hokage let's go."

The trio nodded before they and Minato used shunshin disappearing from the tree branches they stood on.

-To Be Continued...