54 Headhunter Harambe.

Megumi carefully looked around the area from the top of the tree he was standing on.

'Just a few weeks ago, all I would've seen was a sea of brown and green, but now I can see more, much more, who would've thought there are so many things to keep track of inside a forest...'

'The wet area under the rocks around the small pond in front of the tree I am standing on probably had a snake in one of it, the area around the bushes should have the burrows of a few smaller animals in it, probably a mongoose if I'm not wrong. There should be a bunch of small weaver birds nests around the trees a little higher up from where I am. And based on the very soft buzzing of incessantly flapping wings I can also hear which are probably from a bee indicating there's also a bee hive somewhere nearby.'

'But none of that is my current concern as I waited patiently, quietly and absolutely still while having my eyes trained at the tall three meter sized fire fox that was a few tens of meters away from the spot on the tree I was waiting on.'

The fox looked around cautiously as it flared it's nostrils to smell around the different scents in the air for a while and only after it was sure that nothing had entered its immediate vicinity did it lower its burning face to the surface of the lake and slurp up some water.

*SSSSSSSSSS*

The heat emanating from the fox's flames was so hot that it wasn't long before the water from the lake started to boil and turn into steam around it, but it just extended its rather long tongue deeper into the lake and cupped out water to swallow.

Megumi waited as the Fox slowly stopped drinking water and then moved over to the edges of the forest where a few smaller foxes jumped around it and then followed it back into the depths.

'That was close…'

'I need to find a way to be able to detect the fire foxes before I run into them again, it would be more preferable if I could find out where they always were in a certain proximity to me so that I could plan my routes better and avoid them until I'm strong enough to confront them head on.'

'But how do I track them down…?'

I looked down at the random leaf in my hands that I had and watched it crumple at the same slow speed it did as when I had first begun learning elemental nature transformation when I passed my chakra through it.

'I'm still so bad at elemental nature transformation... I don't understand why though, is lightning not my affinity? Was the paper wrong? But I haven't really done much else other than pour my chakra into the leaf, it is the interaction between nature chakra and my own that the leaf crumples...'

'Maybe I could learn wind nature transformation to create a jutsu to enhance my hearing abilities?'

'Hmm….or I could just find a way to skip over the forest altogether by building an entire hot air balloon somehow…. But then I'd have to worry about being shot down by some other large fox using a fireball jutsu.'

'Perhaps I could use chakra threads to create a silk like spiderweb structure to relay me information in some way? Or some way to use a partially created communications device to wirelessly transmit information?'

'Each of my ideas are all new ideas, something I have plenty of time to tinker about with, but not much material to base off the tinkering on. Everything either requires Ekoji Sorui which I didn't have or it requires me to experiment with entirely new things I had no idea how to go about… after all I have never asked Tsuna-nee how to do the elemental nature transformations for elements I didn't have any affinity with.'

'I also have to figure out what the other animals in the ant hill like castle were….'

'I guess going to the volcano is my best bet currently since I don't know if I there is something wrong about the Wooden statue that the animals avoid, so the only safe place would be the lake or the volcano, but I'm sure plenty of animals visit the lake from time to time to drink water and the fire foxes seem to avoid going too far towards the volcano so I can escape their pursuit at least if I go towards the volcano....I hope there's nothing more terrifying there....'

'I should also get a pretty good view of the entire forest from up the top of volcano, perhaps I'll even find out if there is a sea nearby from that height after all.'

'Volcano it is then…. And here I thought I was going to spend my time rolling in snow this winter.'

'At least I won't have to worry about catching a cold.....'

Megumi then slowly began to check his storage seals for all the things that was stored inside them and then the state of his equipment like the fox claws from the foxes he had had to fight against when they had tracked his hiding places down using his scent and the like, the ink he had made from using the sap he had gotten from trees and ashes that remained after using his handmade fire torch.

After a while of making sure everything was where it was suppose to be and drinking a little water, Megumi began his journey North after placing Kaguya on his head.

But before he began to move around the forest by surfing on the branches, he stopped for a second and then pulled out a sharp fox nail and shaved off the right side of his head, then patiently dipped his hands in some ink he had made and drew a small circuit on his scalp which he further compressed using chakra to a small dot behind his ears.

After a small smile he started to surf over the branches once again as he nodded his head to a rhythm as he increased his speed and started to swerve himself and use his whole body to steer and control himself at high speeds.

"Running in the nineties~"

"It is a new way I like to be~"

"I'm just running in the nineties~"

"Come on, baby, run to me~"

"We are running in the nineties~"

"Is a new way to set me free~"

"I'm just running in the nineties~"

"Yes, I want to know~"

"Yes, I want to see~"

*SQUEAK**SQUEAK*

"Yes! yes, Kaguya, I'll sing quieter, so that no one comes after me.'

…..

"What is that Sakura?" Mebuki asked Sakura as she peeked into the room Megumi used to work in before, which was still covered in his paintings and sketches.

"These are the extra arms I'll have on me that I can control like puppets to fight with more swords at once."

"Haha, you look like the First Hokage with his thousand arms buddha statue."

"Hmm….? Its good enough? I don't think I can handle any more..."

"It would probably more decent if you had more hands around your back, since right now you just have like what's that? Six? You look like a spider to be honest." 

"Dad I don't want to listen to any more of your suggestions! Argg! How did Megi even talk to you about weapons for more than a few minutes? Weapons are not meant to look cool! They are meant to be used as tools to kill!"

"Ah! My daughter! Don't be so harsh on my judgement! You have not found your way yet into appreciating the magnificence of your weapons! Imagine if you had the choice to be executed by a good looking weapon or an ugly looking one, which would you choose?!"

"Ah! You're insufferable."

"Hehe~! BY the way Sakura-chan, since when have you been calling Megumi Megi~!?"

"Moooommm!!"

*slam*

Sakura shut the door in the face of her parents as they giggled looking at each other and then Mebuki shouted through the door once again to inform Sakura about why she was actually here.

"Tsunade-sensei told you to meet her later during the evening today since she said she had something else planned for herself during the day."

"Alright~ Mom~!"

A somber tone still pervaded the house as the people on both sides of the door looked at the empty halfway on one side and the empty room on the other but both quickly shook away the feeling and began to work on whatever they had to do to keep moving on, since they trusted Megumi enough to find his way back to them.

….

"Are you sure you want to go through with this Tsunade-sama?"

"Yes, Katsuyu. Wasn't this what my grandfather mastered?"

"... He did but it wasn't as easy as you think it is, he had learnt a lot more about everything than I could ever teach him all by himself. He is perhaps the only human who was able to push the boundaries of the usage of Senjutsu chakra, even further than us animals who are born with it."

"I'll handle it, I'm sure I can surpass anything that was done before me, even if it was grandfather, I have to... because I have to find....him..."

"...Alright, then. As you wish Tsunade-sama, please lower yourself into the pond you can see ahead and begin meditating inside it, I will make sure you aren't turned into a tree when you absorb too much nature chakra."

.....

"Mum! Why am I learning so much about chakra right now!?"

'How did mine and Minato's kid end up so stupid…..did Minato drop him on his head while I was away?'

"Don't you want to beat Sasuke-kun and become better than him? He has already learnt how to shoot fireballs out of his mouth! Don't you want to learn a cool jutsu as well!?"

"YES!"

'Oh my god, I don't know how Tsunade-sama knew, but using Sasuke-kun's name to rile him up works somehow.'

'....I just hope he finds someone cute for himself instead of that boy...'

.....

"Nii-chan! You're home!"

"Yes Sasuke-kun! Are you ready for our training today?"

"Yes Nii-chan! Are we going to be learning the clone jutsu today?"

"Yes, after you've mastered the clone jutsu we will slowly move onto the more advanced jutsus."

"When can I shoot fireballs like nii-chan?"

"Don't worry I'm sure you'll get there sooner than you think, as long as you keep practicing that is." Itachi said rubbing Sasuke's head and messing up his hair which Sasuke gladly took on with a smile.

*whisper*

"Anata, did you ask Itachi to teach Sasuke about chakra so soon?"

"....Un."

"Is there going to be trouble in the future?"

"Un."

"I see. It seems I must contact Kushina and see if I can help her in someway."

"....Un."

.....

'What exactly am I doing wrong here?'

Megumi looked down at the leaf in his hands and watched as it crumpled at the same speed it did a few weeks ago, it was as slow as a snail.

'...?'

'Is there something wrong with me that the chakra isn't able to change its nature?'

'I guess I'll just keep trying.'

Leaving the leaf to fall to the forest floor and be consumed by the various critters that lived in it, Megumi readied himself after the short break he had taken and continued moving in the direction of the volcano with Kaguya.

*Screech**Screech*

Megumi slowed down a little as he silently scanned the surroundings to pinpoint where the sounds came from and spotted a little fire fox fighting against the large hands of what looked like a flaming red Harambe with hollow pupil eyes.

'The heck…is that thing blind?'

Megumi looked around to see if there were any other Fire foxes in the area but couldn't find them.

'....a cub that got lost?'

Turning his focus back on the event in front of him, Megumi watched a little stunned as the three meter tall Fiery Harambe lifted the meter tall little fox and slammed it back into the ground head first bursting open its little head like a watermelon with a small explosion showering the fiery stones that made up the fox everywhere.

"Holy shit…. What have I just stepped into?" Megumi whispered.

Surprisingly, going unnoticed by Megumi, as a little chakra leaked out of his feet that he was using to cushion the bottom of his feet to surf on the branches caused the few leaves that came in contact with it in the surroundings to perfectly scrunch up like an overextended elastic band.

Megumi looked around and watched that he was getting closer to the volcanic mountain since he could now see the mountain even through the gaps between the canopy of leaves.

'This is the gorilla's habitat? The little fox stepped into its territory so it was killed?...how am I going to get close enough to the mountain to get Ekoji Sorui? I need to learn more about this new area…. *sigh* this will take more time.'

Megumi quietly retreated higher up into the trees to get a better view point to overlook the new territory he had just entered.

….

Megumi arrive back at his spot on a tall tree that he had been using as a temporary base in the new area shivering with a hollow look in his eyes as if he had seen something terrible.

"Kaguya you think we'll ever leave this place?"

*squeak**squeak*

"I'll try my best….not to loose hope...I hope...?"

Megumi looked at the rudimentary map he had drawn on a little large dried inner bark.

He had hand drawn the areas he remembered while he was inside the fox territory, and then everything he had spent the entire last week exploring inside the Harambe territory, including a bunch of small ponds to wash himself and get water along with areas with fruits and nuts fit for consumption.

The few dots of ink along with the dotted lines connected to them showcased the other supernatural animals he had encountered inside the forest along with their patrol routes he could figure out.

Smaller animals were depicted with a small dot, while larger animals were depicted with a larger filled in circle.

The problem as Megumi went through the map once again was not the few hundred little dots along with a few larger circles in the fire foxes territory since they rarely moved about in their own territory and even if they did they always followed a specific pattern.

'What the hell is up with these Fire breathing baboons and their curly haired baboon society!? Which secret organization has their base underground that is constantly burning like hell!?'

Megumi closed his eyes as he thought back to what he had witnessed right before he decided to retreat for the day even though it was just early in the afternoon and there was plenty of light to make use off.

While Megumi was surfing around the forest with Kaguya to study and understand the new territory he was inside of, he frowned a bit since even after searching around for an entire day he had not come across the Fiery Gorillas that he had seen a few days ago.

That was when he stopped a little to look at the random part of the forest he found suspiciously flat and filled with grass that had a single deer grazing on it.

'Hmm...? Why are there no plants here? Just a random occurrence?'

The deer suddenly looked up at Megumi as it just seemed to have spotted something wrong with the atmosphere inside the area as well when-

*CRRRRRRRUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHHH*

With a sudden crack in the ground underneath the deer split open spewing molten lava everywhere, shooting rocks out in all directions to hit anything that was inside the grass land to get it damaged.

*SIZZLE* *SCREEEEEEECCHHHHHH* *SIZZLE* *SCREEEEEEEEECCHHHHH*

Very soon a large pair of hands emerged out of the lava and grabbed the now burning deer by neck before dragging it back into the hell like scene under the ground, before the crack closed up and everything went back to normal as if what had just happened was a dream.

'God damn just remembering about how the ground under the deer burst open spewing lava everywhere and then a large baboon hands jumping out of it only for it to grab the deer by its neck and pull it back inside the ground sends chills down my spine! The hell kind of evolution has happened in this area for life to evolve like this?'

'The worst part about it was that the vines and the natural vegetation in the area naturally came together and slowly covered up the entire hole in the ground as if it was natural to cover it up and there was no hole present anywhere in the first place.'

*sigh*

'This is getting quite a bit complicated and I still don't understand simple leaf crumpling exercises here while there are animals around me that use chakra to do clone jutsus, fireball jutsus and headhunter jutsu to hell….too much to do just to live in this place.'

'I guess I can stick leaves to all my tenketsu and then move around the forest while practicing the leaf crumpling exercise? Multitasking for the win? Hopefully it doesn't get me killed with a random hand dragging me back down to hell when I wasn't paying attention.'

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A/N: Images in paragraph comments and chapter comments.

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