55 Death, life's experimental mode.

A small bush jiggled amongst the many inside the forest as it rearranged itself among the branches high up in a tree as it looked on in the direction of the herd of deer that were grazing among the small patch of land that had plain grass on it in the forest.

A single deer amongst the herd lifted its head, breaking its feeding cycle, to look around for a few seconds before jumping away wildly from the spot it was standing on, causing a sudden disturbance in the horde of deer all around it as it tried to escape from the place they were standing on.

Noticing the disturbance several deer followed after the first one and ran along in the forest and sheltered themselves either by climbing among the various trees or just hiding inside their roots seemingly to protect themselves from something.

A single deer stumbled and tripped over itself as another deer had jumped over its head and unfortunately ended up kicking it in the head.

*vvvrrrrrrrrMMMMMMMMMMMM*

*GGAAAAGGGGHHHHHTTTTTTTTT*

*FFFWWWOOOOOSSSHHHH**FFFWWWOOOOSSSHHHH**FFFWWWOOOOOSSSHHHH*

*SSSSCCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCHHHHHHHH*

The land tore up as lava exploded out of it sending chunks of fiery rocks flying all around as a large red fur coated hand extended out of the hellish pit and dragged the few screeching deer who had been left behind into the hellish pit.

The fiery rocks that had shot upward into the sky fell back to the ground and merged back with it and cooled down after a little bit, turning first into glass like obsidian instead of stone or soil.

*crack* *wrack*

But as the obsidian sat there, it slowly formed cracks and then shattered into a million pieces as small saplings started to emerge from inside the land once again, the roots of trees around the area grew back into the glassy debris turning it back into soil at a visible pace as grass grew back over the area turning it back into the same grassland it once was.

The bush of leaves high up in the trees shivered as the entire event ended and then slowly stood back up revealing a little black haired bare chested boy with a bunch of seals attached to dogtags around his neck and ropes all around his body carrying various other items like ration containers and satchels filled with water to drink and ink to write.

A snow white bunny that had been recently washed emerged from behind his neck chewing on a piece of fruit they had found growing during their exploration of the Harambe territory.

'I guess I was right about the grassy spots being the hunting grounds of the Fire Monkeys.'

'Hmm…. so I'll be mostly safe as long as I keep to the trees? Since they seem to be unable to split open the ground under the trees?'

'And I still haven't figured out how the roots and vegetation grow back so fast and quick after the earth is split open.'

'Maybe something about the soil in those areas allows them to grow much quicker? If I could get some of it, maybe I could start my own Ekoji Sorui farm and never have to enter the Harambe territory again for as long as I am here.'

Slowly walking away from the area so as to not alert any other Fiery creatures living around Megumi sneaked back into the hole he had carved into the trunk of a tree for himself.

As he entered his little temporary base camp, Megumi removed his ghillie suit and hung it on the hook above the hole from inside to cover and camouflage the entrance.

Summoning a hot fire stone and dropping it in the hole filled with firewood and fluff Megumi laid down on the small leaf bed as a fire started to burn in the hole while Kaguya jumped into her own leaf bed which she also used as food.

There were holes drilled into the bark behind the firepit to let air flow into the impromptu cave so that Megumi didn't suffocate in his sleep while the fire was burning due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

'Huh… it is the same today. Although the number of leaves that have crumpled up have decreased they still crumpled up after I visited a hunt.'

'Is there something special about the hunt that causes my chakra to be able to undergo an elemental transformation?'

'Or is it just a mental blockage that is keeping me from allowing the transformation?'

'Either way what is so special about the hunting events that it allows me to let Elemental chakra transformation occur…. And why does it always happen when I'm not paying attention to the leaves stuck to my body?'

'Time to review the memories of the last few times to compare what happened I guess…'

Entering his mind palace, Megumi first flexed his left arm which he still could properly imagine inside his mind but it definitely felt awkward and weird to do so, as if it was something that wasn't supposed to be there.

Sitting down in front of the large holographic screen Megumi summoned in front of himself and began to watch all the things that had occurred from his perspective since he had arrived here.

After a few minutes of watching through, Megumi paused the playback and looked around for a while at the large space all around himself and then closed his eyes until all of it faded away and was replaced by the single room with no doors and anime posters on the walls that he felt most comfortable with.

In front of him was the same sleek metallic laptop that he was most comfortable with and then he slowly opened his eyes that carried a sense of focus far beyond what he had ever shown to anyone around him.

As the memories played through once again, Megumi's expression changed accordingly to the scene in front of him. He went through the memory of the little fire fox being slammed into the ground by the large Fire gorilla and then he watched the memory of the ground bursting apart only to swallow a deer whole where he paused the memory for a while as he closed his eyes as if recalling exactly what he was feeling and then slowly opened his eyes as if he had found a question that could lead to an answer.

"...death…..?"

'Hmmm…..this will be tricky to test....'

…..

A bush moved into position, waiting right at the edge of a branch that had extended over the small grass land that deer were currently feeding on.

With gentle and careful moves, the bush crawled into position and waited right on top of the herd as it went unnoticed by anyone present, except a small white rabbit that waited at the beginning of the branch holding onto a thin vine that held tight a rope with stones on the end that was tied to the branch itself such that once the rope was let loose the branch would snap and cause anyone on it it plummet straight sixty feet down to their deaths.

*VrrrrrrrrMMMMMMMMM*

A low rumble sounded in the area that everyone close to the ground heard causing all the deer to begin to flee the grass lands as the earth underneath them split open all of a sudden leading to several tens of hands extend out of the fiery ground spewing lava only for them to latch onto the closest deer to them to drag them back down.

Fiery stones and chunks of rocks flew close to the bush in the sky but it held on unmoving just like any other ordinary bush.

*Snap*

*creak*

With a sudden snap, the white rabbit chewed on the rope in her mouth which caused the entire branch that it was connected to to creak as it then broke in half under the heavy weight of the bush that was on its end.

*BRRAAAACCCCKKKK*

The bush along with the branch plummeted straight into the fiery pit of hell as the leaves of the bush started flying away everywhere into the air leaving open into the air a barely clothed small black haired boy whose entire focus was on the fiery pit in front of him inside which everything alive he could watch screamed in pain as it was burnt and cooked alive, freezing the scene right into his memory.

A myriad of emotions flashed across those eyes as they reflected what could possibly be his own end, in the grasps of the powerful arms of the baboons that could absolutely snap his spine in two and treat his bones like a toothpick just as he treated the wood he snapped off of the branches to make a portable firestick.

The fiery lava started to coagulate as all the fires how that had been blown away came crashing back into the ground as it slowly closed up, the kid found himself come face to face with the burning head of a deer that had was being swallowed up right under him.

The resigned eyes of the deer connected with the eyes of the small child falling when the branch that the child was holding onto suddenly shifted its trajectory and flung across and around the tall thick tree that the white rabbit was standing on watching as the vines from the tree had become entangled during the fall and changed its direction at the last moment.

The kid was flung off of the branch into the slowly normalizing land that had green grass and roots growing over it once again.

After a few rolls and stumbles the kid came to a stop facing up towards the bright blue sky with a confused look on his face as he found all the leaves across his entire body had become scrunched up.

The leaves on his body that suddenly fell away when the things keeping them attracted was taken away by the boy.

The little boy just got up as he began to walk away like nothing had happened, while the white rabbit looked at him and then jumped down from the tree, branch by branch and finally onto his head as it rested down on it.

….

*sigh*

'What exactly is this about?'

'I can't proceed any further towards the volcano since I'm much weaker than the baboons and I can't go to the buddha statue because it looks like it might hold something within it that every other animal avoids so it'd be better if I had a way to escape before I entered the area surrounding the statue.'

'Why is it all so troublesome!?'

*Squeak* *squeak*

"Tell me Kaguya! What is all of this so confusing and troublesome! Isn't life of a reincarnate supposed to be smooth sailing filled with face slapping and jade beauties!?"

*squeak* *Bite*

"Ouch! Fine! Fine! You can have the berries that you love so much! I won't disturb you while you're eating!"

Megumi placed down Kaguya on her leaf bed once again as he plucked a new leaf from his leaf bed and passed his chakra into it.

The leaf slowly crumpled as nature chakra interacted with more of it and then compared it with the leaves that had crumpled up from the several tests he had conducted with the time he came face to face with death or at least deaths around him that severely impacted his core.

'Hmm… the leaves that crumple up during the death run events are fully crumpled without any creases in a proper pattern right from the spot I hold them from on my body, while the leaves I crumple in between my fingers while I am relaxed contain a lot of sharp edges. So that indicates the leaves crumpling from multiple different directions contradicting each other or in simpler words the crumpling being non uniform or that the leaf is crumpling from everywhere making it slow down?'

'Is that why the leaves from the death run events look like origami while the relaxed ones look like trashed paper?'

'Why is the same chakra behaving in two different ways in two different events? How is it all focused during death and then all so chaotic normally?'

'Death…..what exactly is its significance and how does it relate to chakra?'

'Why am I seemingly the only ninja who has this issue? Or am I not and this is just something that I don't understand and think about differently?'

'...'

'How do you experiment with death?'

'Is death moving through time? Because time decays all?'

'If it is, then in the human body is it every breath?'

'But don't you also die if you hold your breath?'

'....hmm… so I can get closer to death if I hold my breath?'

'....let's try?'

Megumi folded his legs, sat up taking the support of the tree bark inside as he interlocked his fingers and relaxed his body taking a few deep breaths and then began to slow his breathing rhythm.

'...one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…'

'Let's cut down the speed by half each time each time?'

'...one, …., three, …., five,...., seven, …., nine, ….'

'...hmm'

'...one, …., …., …., five,...., …., …., nine, ….'

'....'

'...one, …., …., …., …..,...., …., …., nine, ….'

'..., …., …., …., …..,one, …., …., ….., ….'

'....'

'on-'

*gasp**gasp**gasp**gasp*

"That was quite close…. Let's keep at it. What else am I going to do anyway? Die? Hehe....hehehehe... I might be going a little crazy... maybe...?"

*squeak*

"Haha! I know Kaguya, I know I already am! Just like you are!"

*SQUEAK*

"Hehehe....Assistant Kaguya! I implore you to please make notes of my experiments with life! With its end death! And do let me know if I am actually going to die while I perform them!"

...

In a park with multiple equipment for children to play around in, a pink haired girl was running around with another blonde and black haired girl as the three chased after each other shouting 'You're it!' after touching the other.

Not before long the three little girls were on the ground gasping for breath because of the intense exercise they had just done.

"This was so much fun Sakura-chan!"

"Yes! Sakura let's play like this tomorrow too!"

"Hm~m, Okie, Ayumi-chan, Ino."

Although tag was not a new game for the children in the village, the two girls tried their best to sound enthusiastic about playing it with Sakura even though it made them sweaty and dusty which would cause their Mom's to shout at them to take a shower when they returned home.

Both the girls had noticed how Sakura had arrived at the park today looking for someone but ended up just sitting around by herself all alone looking very sad, and when Ayumi recognized Sakura, she brought along Ino to play with her.

"See ya tomorrow Sakura-chan!!"

"Yep! Take care Ayumi-chan!"

"You too Sakura!"

"Thanks Ino! I hope your mom doesn't shout at you for getting all that mud into your hair."

"Hehe! It's alright Sakura-chan!"

**Sakura POV**

I watched as Ino and Ayumi walked back to their houses as I was left alone in the park once again.

I had arrived at the park for a change of pace and to take a small break from my research into using puppetry as a means to increase my combat capabilities.

Once I did arrive here though I noticed Sasuke-kun in the park playing around with a few other boys from the other clans.

I was delighted at first but then I heard my own first words I vividly and animatedly uttered after unexpectedly spotting him.

'Tsk. Megumi is so much more mature.'

Sasuke was showing off his skills he had probably learnt from someone else in his clan to the other kids.

Granted he was just a kid right now and I was probably just as immature as he was when I was his age but I couldn't… I just couldn't look at him the same way I used to. He wasn't the same Sasuke-kun I used to remember.

I just felt more miserable after realizing that and it made me miss Megumi even more.

'Why did you have to leave just when everything was moving in such a wonderfully happy way.'

'Are you still alive Megi..?'

'I miss you... even more...I hope you're alright... I hope you're at least alive...'

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