//------------------------------// // Arc 3 Chapter 3: Life Within the Forest // Story: Ring eyed Shinobi // by Seeker Of Knowledge //------------------------------// (Everfree Forest) (The next day) Zeko was constructing a moderately large building out of his condensed sand while Zecora watched on, while in a state of semi-meditation. “His control of the sand is exemplary, if only that were something he could teach me.” She thought while watching the sand whip back and forth to form the building that she predicted would be his home. “Ok so that’s almost done, now I have to try to expand this area but I don’t want to knock down the trees.” The shinobi said aloud hoping that Zecora would know a way to go about expanding his territory. “Can you not easily see, that you could simply replant the trees?” The Zebra asked rhetorically making Zeko brighten as he placed his hands together and floated above the canopy. Zecora got out of her meditative pose and watched as her friend floated in the air and pressed his palms together. “Let’s see if this works.” Zeko thought as he separated his hands, Zecora noticed that the trees around the small desert and oasis began to shake and soon rose out of the ground and moved up towards Zeko. “What type of power does he carry around to bring trees straight from the ground?!” The Zebra asked no one in particular while in shock that her mentor was able to uproot trees and then make them float alongside him. She then saw him move the trees into a ring shape and send them away from him and to the edges of the forest. Zeko put a hand out and reached to Zecora who was brought up to him which made her begin speaking in an undecipherable language until Zeko grabbed her hand. “Watch this...Wood style:Tree limbs!” He said loudly which caused roots to spring from the ground and latch onto the tree roots and pull them into place at the forest’s edge leaving Zecora wide eyed as the two floated back down to the sand covered ground where Zeko let go of his friend who fell back onto the sand. Zeko clasped his hands together and caused more sand to push out where the trees were uprooted and expand his home. Zecora was stuttering to herself over the teenager’s display of power. While she saw it wasn’t a devastating attack but rather a simple relocation of flora, she was shocked that such a feat was seemingly untaxing to him and that he immediately resumed forming his building. “I-I am unsure what I have just seen. How did you do such a feat so easily?” She asked while struggling to stand due to her body still being in shock from having been floating so high in the air. Zeko stopped his construction once he heard her speaking, he looked around realizing what she meant and put his hands behind his head. “Well I told you about the Deva path, so I just used that to get us into the air and then I uprooted the trees and used wood style to replant them like you suggested. It’s good that I can use that wood style move, otherwise I would’ve had more trouble replanting those...trees...” Zeko stopped himself as he noticed that multiple Timberwolves came out of the forest and were forming a circle around the pair, who quickly assumed fighting positions. The eyes of each Timberwolf started glowing as a green mist rolled in over the sand making Zeko look and see that it was laced with some energy, but before he could think on this the mist suddenly went towards his face and the Timberwolves surrounded him. He started to breathe in the mist and felt drowsy but he shook it off and looked over to Zecora to see her unconscious on the back of one of the wolves. “What the hell is this mist?” He asked the wolves not expecting any answer. “It’s been some time since one has resisted my influence.” A female voice reverberated around the shinobi who looked around and saw no source of the mystery voice. “Who said that? Where are you?” He kept his guard up expecting an attack but none came, instead the sound of flying insects came from a tree and a cloud of reddish orange mist and bees came to meet him. “You are the one who has done this correct? You placed this... sand here and moved my trees to the outer ring of the forest?” The cloud questioned and received a nod from Zeko, after which it began to swirl and merge with a tree to form a ,wooden being,that was taller than Celestia and apparently female. “You must possess an incredible amount of strength to do something like this. And yet I can tell you aren’t any unicorn, so how have you done this child?” Zeko was speechless at the wooden being that simply materialized and stood before him, she was different than the Timberwolves around him since he could detect that her energy was similar to his chakra and somewhat more primordial. He could tell she was older than she would’ve made it seem and that the forest had been her home for a great deal of time. He managed to break himself out of his state and decided to answer her question with words rather than a nod. “Its just different techniques that I know that let me manipulate my surroundings. I pulled up the roots with wood style and covered this area with sand using a specific earth style.” He answered while making gestures to the places in question leaving the figure to ask another question. “Then how did you manage to pull the earth from the ground and push and pull things toward you? I doubt even Celestia would be able to do something of that caliber.” The woman asked which made Zeko realize that she’s been watching him longer than he expected. “Hang on, how do you know about that? This is the first time we met.” He questioned. “I am connected to the forest, I see through the eyes of many things. The Timberwolves are an example and seeing how you bested them truly showed me what you were capable of.” She answered his question which confused him more than it did give answers. “If you’re connected to the forest than how don’t you know about my Rinnegan? Or do you know about it and just want a more clear answer?” He received a head shake no which surprised him as he believed he figured out what she meant. “I am able to see through various things within the forest, not hear. But your eye was something I did notice and it made me fear that you wished to transform my forest into a desert once I’d seen it the first time. But after what I witnessed I can see that you were willing to expand my reach as well as your own rather than destroying my trees for your own purposes.” She explained to the teenager who started to put pieces of her explanation together. And was preparing to ask something that could affect his further living situations. “Are you the spirit of this forest, or the aspect of nature itself?” He asked and earned laughter from the woman which frustrated him. “I’m not gonna get laughed at by anyone for asking a good question.” He said sternly enough to get her to stop and wipe a tear of what he believed was honey, from her eye. “I meant no disrespect, I’m simply surprised that you managed to figure such a thing out so quickly.” Zeko grabbed Samehada’s hilt in anticipation making the spirit raise a hand to placate him. “Stay your weapon, I’m not a being of violent intent. Many in the past have thought so but they figured me for a demon, not a spirit that nurtured the forest. You have managed to see that I wish to protect the forest, and you have intrigued me with your actions.” As she explained Zeko relaxed his grip but her eyes stayed glued onto his blade. “I guess you noticed what Samehada is, but don’t worry about it wanting to attack you. The blade seeks energy to eat but has preferences, I’d assume yours would taste like branches to it so it wouldn’t be too interested in taking it.” The spirit relaxed at this. “So why have you decided to meet me now, and why bring these Timberwolves?” “They were to help me if you were less reasonable than the natives here and decided to harm me. As for why I decided to meet you... I only wished for company. This forest is beautiful but the ponykind don’t share that idea and only the Zebra had been brave enough to venture into it until now.” She explained to the pair, while Zecora was in a state of disbelief that a spirit wanted to be her friend, Zeko was happy at the chance to learn more techniques and strategies. “So that means you want me to live here.” She nodded in response. “Well I guess I’d be a monster if I denied at this point, so I’ll stay here Miss...we never exchanged names. I’m Zeko.” She chuckled at her minor oversight before introducing herself. “I am Ano, matron of the Everfree.” ============================== (Hidden Leaf Village) “I’m still pissed that I let him do that.” Kotetsu thought while walking out of the hospital, glancing at his bruised arm occasionally. He wasn’t injured as much as anyone else would have been in his situation considering that Nouka hadn’t wanted to critically injure him but hadn’t walked away unscathed. “Hey! Kotetsu!” That same voice called out to the injured shinobi who turned and saw Nouka with an object in his hands as he ran to him. “I found this in the library.” He held up the item in question which turned out to be a black book. “It has information about different dimensions and how they can technically be accessed when there’s disturbance on each side.” Nouka handed the book to his injured friend who read the pages he marked, face changing from anger, to one of faint hope. “Since your eye leads to a different dimension we’d probably have to be there to get wherever Zeko went.” “So if your theory is right then we just have to find a way to create a disturbance wherever Zeko is, and create one while we’re in the Kamui dimension. Then we should be able to bring him back.” The Sharingan wielder hypothesized but then stopped himself as he realized the most important issue at hand. “How do we create a disturbance where he is if we can’t get there?” Nouka stopped his personal celebration and his look of elation was changed with one of woe. “I-I don’t have any kind of clue. Maybe if we could find a way to send a message to him, he could technically be the one making the disturbance. Ooh! Maybe if something really big happens there it’ll be enough for us to make a portal.” “That... might be the smartest thing you’ve ever said. I take back every time I’ve called you stupid over the last three months, but how will we know if something’s going on where he’s at?” Kotetsu asked quickly changing the subject. “We could check the Kamui every day and see where it’s the weakest while we’re in there. That’ll mean something’s happening and we can tear through it ourselves and sense if he’s there.” “That’s not a terrible idea. So I’m guessing we start today.” He put a hand on Nouka’s shoulder. “As much as I don’t like touching people unless I’m breaking something of theirs, I have to do this for us both to go.” The pair started to vanish into a spiral centered from Kotetsu’s left eye until they were gone entirely. ============================== (Everfree Forest) (Later that day) Zecora has gone back to her hut hours ago leaving Zeko with Ano. The two were currently walking around the forest and Ano was showing the shinobi the more scenic areas and came across a hole in the ground which led to the mirror pond. “So it’s an entire pond that replicates whoever goes in it and its completely unguarded?” He received a nod from Ano before facepalming. “So you sincerely don’t see any issue with that?” “It’s simply a source of water that can make more of what enters. It is very far underground and requires a certain phrase to make a copy of yourself.” “I can understand that but what if someone had ill intent and wanted to make an army of themselves? What if they wanted to multiply something dangerous? I don’t think that it’s safe to leave something with dangerous potential so unprotected.” Ano slowly lost her smile and gained a look of worry as she realized Zeko made a valid point, even though many in the lands were friendly she knows that some don’t share that idea. “Well I suppose you are correct but I don’t want to spoil the beauty of the aquifer it resides in. So how could such an issue be resolved?” “It must be giving off some sort of energy, maybe if I add my own I could null the replication effect? I don’t see any downsides and it’s better than letting something so dangerous stay unaccounted for.” He jumped into the hole before them and slid through the oddly carved tunnel and was deposited on the other side headfirst. “I’m gonna kill something for that, don’t know what but the next thing to wrong me here dies.” The teenager said as he walked over to the pond and observed it, noticing a faint power emanating from its surface. “How do you intend to interrupt its mana?” He jumped at hearing the voice of Ano since he thought she would stay out of his way so that he could focus on his task. He simply put both of his hands on the ground in front of the pond and sent a blue wave of chakra over it. “Ok, do you know what the phrase is to replicate yourself, I need to see how this works so I know how to cancel it out.” He explained to the spirit who looked concerned that the one who was so seemingly concerned over the weaponization of the pond wanted to use it so badly. “Calm down, there’s no way it could replicate me correctly since I’m not even from this world. And if it did I’d just take my duplicates Rinnegan so it wouldn’t stand too much of a chance.” “I cannot tell the phrase but I can simply make it go into a state akin to when it creates a double.” Her eyes began to glow and she lifted her hands to the pond that was radiating a dim blue glow. “Alright so now I just have to...” Zeko placed his hands into the water and began to feed his chakra into the pond changing the blue glow to a dull yellow with black markings which confused him and Ano. “That’s not what I expected it to look like, but now you can see if it’s still normal.” “I sense that it is changed but its appearance now is alluring.” She reached out to the water to touch the markings to find that they didn’t appear onto her hand like she thought they would. “How have you made these markings on the water without staining it? It seems as if they are apart of the water’s surface.” “They are. I infused the water with some of the energy of a tailed beast that gave me some of its chakra. Those symbols cover his body.” He explained to Ano, who was still toying with the surface of the water trying to break the pattern to no avail. “Now it shouldn’t be duplicating anything-.” Ano coughed and the glow she gave off dimmed. “Something is wrong, the sun is being blocked and my trees can’t survive like this.” She turned back to Zeko. “I must cut our time short for now and I need you to find the problem.” Zeko nodded and jumped to the ceiling and stood upside down, confusing Ano. “Earth Style: Subterranean Voyage.” He forced his head up and tunneled through the ground above him. “I believe he will be a great ally.” ============================== (Kamui Dimension) (Time is immeasurable) The unlikely friends were panting and sporting bruises and minor cuts. “Ok so Shukaku’s chakra is in different places, this means either Zeko’s shifting through dimensions or something He came into contact with is connected to different dimensions.” Kotetsu explained to Nouka’s confusion. “Something’s messing up these realities, where we’ve been checking are just mirrors to where he is.” “Oh that makes sense. So we need to figure out which ripple is actually his but they’re all copying Shukaku so we can’t tell who’s doing this and a glglglglgl.” “Damnit! Why the hell do you do that?! You sound like a sick cicada.” He exclaimed, making Nouka jump back and change his expression from irritated to forlorn. “I’m sorry for making that noise. I’m just mad that we can’t find Zeko, and he’s been gone for so long. What if he died?” Kotetsu looked up and recalled something that his cousin told him when they were younger. “If something can kill me, you need to get my eye. I won’t let it go to something undeserving.” His face contorted into one of pure anger and he stomped his foot down. “NO! He’s not dead and if he was we’d know just from the backlash! We both know he’d fight until death, and he’d let go of his control over the tailed beast chakra and that’d let us know he died!” Nouka looked at his feet and rubbed the back of his head. “Let’s just keep looking, there’s only four more ripples so one of them has to be his.” The two stood close by one another as Kotetsu focused his gaze to a point where the very fabric of reality was thinned and had traces of his cousin’s chakra. “I’ll be damned if he dies to something else!” Kotetsu thought as the ripple was opened and brought the two inside. =======