Chapter 3:I Wonder What They’re Up To?
“Fuck Kakuzu, we’ve been walking for ages. We’ve gotta be lost, how else have we not found anything, yet?”
Kakuzu and Hidan had been walking all night, and while Kakuzu didn’t like to admit when he was wrong, he was beginning to see that they might be lost.
“We’re not lost, Hidan. We’re just in a new area. We’ve never been here before, how’re we supposed to know where anything is?”
“I don’t care, Kakuzu! My feet are tired, and I’m hungry! This walking is getting ridiculous!”
Kakuzu had had enough. “Fine then, you choose a direction to go from here and see if we get to a settlement or town any quicker.”
Hidan looked at Kakuzu, rage in his eyes, but decided not to insult his partner for once.
“Fine then, we’re going this way!”
Hidan turned to the left and began marching into the forest.
“Why did I have to be paired with him?” Said Kakuzu.
Despite all of his feelings against doing it, he followed Hidan into the forest.
They walked for hours, but the forest never got any thinner. The brush was thick, and the mosquitoes were terrible.
“Well Hidan, this is what happens when you don’t listen to me.”
“Hey, you know what? Fuck you, Kakuzu! It’s not like we were getting any closer to civilization going your way!”
“How can you know that? We haven't seen anything similar to a town or settlement going this way, either. At least when we were going my way, there wasn’t thick brambles and mosquitoes!”
“Hey! What did I say? Shut the hell up, Kakuzu!”
Kakuzu just sighed, liked he always does when dealing with Hidan, and continued on in silence.
- - - - -
Pain and Konan reappeared near a large mountain with a castle built into it. They both thought it would be a good place to start, so they headed towards immediately. Just as they were about to start ascending the mountain, they ran into Kisame and Itachi.
“Well, I had thought we dispersed very well, it seems I was mistaken.” Said Pain.
“Yes, I agree, but since we are here, would mind us travelling with you? It’s not like we need to be fanned out that well, and this city could contain some of this world’s military forces; you may need help.”
“Hmph, you make a valid point. Very well, let’s go.”
- - - - -
Obito reappeared on top of a large mountain. He regained his composure then looked around for anything interesting. Off into the distance, he spotted several large mountains with some kind of birds circling them.
“Hmm, they look far too large to be standard birds. I wonder what they really are.”
Obito descended the mountain and headed towards the strange birds, not noticing the sign as he walked past it: ‘Griffon Domain ahead.’
- - - - -
After destroying Appleoosa, me and Zetsu had left the desert behind and entered a large forest. The canopy was thick, so light was hard to come by in the forest, even though it was daytime. Brambles were everywhere, and tugged on my tail and hair as I walked past. I really did hate being a pony. Eventually we made it to a clearing, and Zetsu was mad with rage, he thought we were lost.
“Gah! We were better off staying in the desert, at least we knew SOMETHING about the area! Here we don’t know where we are, or even how to find out WHERE we are!”
While Zetsu was going off in his tirade, I heard something in the woods to our right.
“Hey Zetsu, listen.”
He stopped rambling for a moment and listened carefully.
“You hear it don’t, you? Sounds like we have company, and I don’t think it’s a forest animal, either.”
We prepared ourselves for battle, when suddenly Hidan ran out of the woods.
“FInally! I can’t wait to sacrifice you two to Jash-” He stopped when he recognized us.
“Hey, Kakuzu, it’s only Zetsu and the new guy.”
“I have eyes to see that, Hidan. Anyway, it’s good to see a friendly face for once, instead of all these damn mosquitoes.”
Zetsu laughed heartily. “Well Rokuro, it seems you have a new set of teammates to guide you. Obito ordered me to come back as soon as we rendezvoused with any of our comrades. Good-bye now.”
Zetsu sank into the ground and left me with Hidan and Kakuzu.
“Well then rookie, let’s go. We need to get you some battle experience.”
“Actually,” I cut in, “Zetsu and I already confronted some of the locals. They didn’t listen, and Zetsu ordered me to kill them and torch the town.”
Hidan laughed. “Good, now that means the first fight we get into, I kill them. You hear me, Kakuzu? I kill them, not you!”
“Fine, but just remember I won’t jump in to help you. I can’t say the same for...?”
“My name’s Rokuro.”
“Right, well, I can’t exactly stop him from coming to help you. Although I’m sure you would just push him away, as well.”
With that, we set off back into the woods. We didn’t travel for long when we saw light and hurried towards it. We had found our way out of the woods.
“Sweet sunlight! No more brambles and snakes!” Said Hidan.
“It was your idea that got us in that mess in the first place, you know.” Said Kakuzu.
Hidan ignored him, and we walked towards a river to get some water and rest for awhile.
- - - - -
“PRINCESS! PRINCESS! We have urgent news for you!”
Shining Armor and two of his pegasus soldiers, Wind Breaker and Shooting Star, were running towards Princess Celestia’s throne room.
They burst through the doors, out of breath.
“Princess, huff huff, we have, huff, something to tell, huff, you!”
Celestia and Luna both laughed. “Shining Armor, get some breath and then tell me what it is so important.”
Shining Armor took in two deep breaths then spoke. “It’s not me that will tell you what happened, I wasn’t there. But these two were. Go on soldiers, tell her what you saw.”
Wind Breaker and Shooting Star stepped forward, and bowed.
“Your highness, we were doing our usual patrol route over the Everfree Forest when Shooting Star thought it would be a good idea to scout over Appleoosa as well, seeing as how we weren’t that far away.”
Celestia, now very interested, broke in. “Well don’t stop now, continue. What did you see?”
Wind Breaker and Shooting Star looked at eachother then down at the ground.
“It wasn’t what we saw, it’s what we didn’t see. Appleoosa is gone.”
“What do you mean by ‘gone’?”
“The town was burned to the ground, the citizens were all dead. No survivors, your highness.”
Celestia looked grim for a moment. “This is simply awful! How could this have happened? We made peace with the Buffalo, so I’m sure it wasn’t them.”
“It wasn’t them, the Buffalo don’t use torches made from oak wood. That tree doesn’t grow where they live. We discovered a small match that was very charred at the foot of the town hall.”
Celestia cut in again. “Well if it wasn’t them, who could’ve done this?”
“We don’t know, your highness. All we do know, is that we discovered burned chairs pushed up against the doors of the burned buildings. Which means-”
“Which means this was no accident!” Shouted Celestia. “Thank you two for this report. Shining Armor! Gather up several of your best flyers and send them out in teams of 3 to each of the surrounding areas. See if anyone knows anything about what happened!”
Shining Armor bowed low. “Yes your highness. It shall be done.”
With that, Shining Armor and both his men ran from the room.
Luna looked towards her sister. “My dear Celestia, you should go rest. I see thou art quite troubled by this news. It can cloud your judgement.”
“You’re right, but I need to be here for my people now. A whole town and hundreds of ponies killed, and we have no idea who could’ve done it.”
Luna bowed her head low. “I know sister, I know. This is a bad sign of trouble to come, I know it.”