Moving North.

*squeak**squeak*

'Huh? Why's my nose wet? Oh, Kaguya.'

'Uggghhhhh…. My body feels like shit. Why are there so many insect bites! It hurts!'

Megumi woke up and tried to get up using his left hand but hadn't realized that it was missing so almost rolled himself off of the tree branch.

'Oh! Shit!'

Megumi wriggled up like some sort of worm and found himself leaning with his back against the trunk of the tree with Kaguya snuggled on top of his head.

*sigh*

'Well… it could be worse?'

'...'

Trying to keep the dirt on his face out of his eyes Megumi wiped his face using the cloth that was still stuffed inside his mouth and looked around himself and tried to bring a sense of direction and position by talking into account what ever landmarks he could see, which admittedly was not much at all.

'Shit… it's getting dark, I need fire if I want to keep off any animals, insects and stave off the cold that's bound to fall in such a forested area in the night, furthermore during the winter.'

Megumi looked around himself for a while before deciding on what he would do next and how he would get there.

Megumi used chakra to stick his only remaining hand along with his legs to the tree and then slowly climbed down to the corpse of the demonic looking fox that was at its roots.

Carefully scouring and looking at the charred corpse, Megumi picked and snapped of the sharpest claws he could find from the Fox's paws and began walking deeper into the forest, away from the corpse that was sure to have attracted other animals if it hadn't already.

The body still seemed a little warm, but staying out in the open for so long had seemed to cool it off, but Megumi made a note to see if it was possible to use any of the future foxes he would end up killing if he was going to spend any amount of time in this forest.

After walking through the forest for what Megumi thought was about half 'n hour he reached the base of a much more thicker and sturdier tree than the last one.

His mind was still muddy and clogged up but he still made sure to remember any important plants for sources of water and food on his way.

He didn't collect anything since he first wanted to establish camp, even a temporary one where he could shelter himself for the night, he estimated he could get food later.

'Argh! My feet hurt! How is it so difficult to walk without any shoes! Everything is so prickly and spikey!'

'This should make do.'

Slowly walking on the tree trunk Megumi reached quite high up the tree before stopping and resting on one of the branches for a bit of rest.

*scritch**scratch**scritch**scratch**srcitch**scratch*

Noises of scraping began to fill the forest but were quickly muffled out by the canopy of leaves as Megumi used the claws he had to drill a hole into the branch he was sitting on.

After getting a hole that was about the depth of a single digit of a finger and the same width, Megumi stopped and broke off some dry branches from around the area he was sitting, scrapped off some bark and a fibers from within the wood and stuffed them into the hole.

Using fibers and leaves to weave the sticks of wood together reasonably enough that they would stay together he placed them to the side.

Using his spit to wet the blood that had dried on him he picked a tenketsu point that was closest to his left shoulder and drew a few seals on top of it using a small thin piece of stick he had just broken off.

Pouring chakra into his fingers and touching the seal he pulled out a chakra thread that he wrapped around a stick by holding it vertically with his feet with leaves in between to cushion them and then placed the stick in to the hole and started pulling the chakra thread to spin around the stick employing the bow drill method to generate heat and eventually fire with it.

After about twenty minutes the wood decided it was dry enough to begin to smoke and only after about thirty minutes did Megumi see the first embers which he began to blow on as he brought it under the cover of the sticks he had tied up with leaves earlier so that they could be used to catch the embers to create fire.

Feeling fully spent, Megumi wiped the sweat on his forehead as he looked around for the sources of food and water that he had spotted were available nearby during his climb here.

Spotting a few Aloe vera and a few trees with small edible berries on them Megumi walked off of his tree once again and went around collecting the leaves of the aloe vera to get some water from them and the berries to fill his stomach for tonight.

Using chakra threads to tie up leaves into tight bundles he collected a lot of dry leaves and branches from the forest floor to take back up with him for keeping the fire going through the night.

From the base of the tree, among the soil around the roots, Megumi pulled out a few maggots which he also carried along with him by holding them inside a temporary leaf cup.

'I hope I can find dried nuts somewhere, they should be the most energy efficient and should be able to keep my body warm in the upcoming winter.'

Megumi sat down on the branch and slowly snapped a few leaves of Aloe vera to drink water from them, while safely storing the rest beside him by tying them up in reeds he had collected while he was down below.

After eating a few berries himself and feeding a few small pieces to Kaguya since she was the one who helped him figure out if they were edible or not, Megumi finally loosened up a little and began to analyze the situation he had been thrust into.

'Can I contact everyone back at home in some way?'

'If I make the communication seal once again? Possibly *cough*…but how do I get Ekoji Sorui for myself?'

'*cough*I could replace them by making the seal larger and encompass the different tenketsu in my body and mimic it's functions if possible.'

'And the storage seal on my chest…*cough**cough* I've got to find a better way to handle this, along with a safer method to store my arm that is inside of it so that once I'm back I can ask Tsuna-nee's help to fix it….*cough**cough* Probably not since I would have grown, but well one can hope!'

'Haha. I wonder what'll happen if I take too long to go back? Will I have a baby arm after that? Hehe. My Ninja Moniker would be 'Fear! For the Baby Arm Killer is here again, he will collect the arms of your children to use as his own!' HA!*cough**cough**cough**cough**cough**cough*'

'So on my list of things to do in the foreseeable future, I have to find a way to make fire easier, find a way to make fire portable, find ink, redraw seals and find a way to communicate back home.'

'I also need to find and follow a few of the herbivore animals around to see what they eat and from where they eat around here.'

'What was up with the fox from earlier? *cough**cough* Why was it on fire? Was that even fire in the first place?'

'And where exactly am I? *cough**cough*Am I in a different world altogether once again? Can I get Isekaied twice?'

'I should be able to tell where I am once I see the stars that rise up in the sky during the night.'

'If I am able to communicate with everyone else I should definitely learn how to use Medical Ninjutsu.'

'I also need to make weapons for use. Although I have two hidden blades, I don't know how long they can stay sharp, even if I avoid using them for mundane things and use the claws I can gather for everything else.'

As night slowly blanket the sky making it dark, Megumi occasionally kept adding new leaves and branches to keep the fire going, making it the only source of light to be found anywhere near himself for miles around the temporary camp.

Breaking out of his repetitive actions, Megumi looked up at the few faint and few bright twinkling dots of light high up in night sky.

*sigh*

'How come I don't recognize a single constellation?'

'Southern hemisphere?'

'Yes, the moon looks flipped around...*cough* at least I'm still in the same world and on the same planet.'

'....then I'll have to figure out a way to move up north until I either reach the fire nation or come across a sea to cross by ship. The good news is that it is probably going to be summer soon instead of winter now since the seasons should be flipped, at least I hope so.'

Megumi then climbed high up into the branches and at the highest most stable point arranged two sticks and lined them up with a random bright star he picked out of the night sky as he waited back down and kept track of the stars position in the night sky to figure out the cardinal directions and map his surroundings.

*squeak**squeak*

Since it had become quite dark, Kaguya slipped back around Megumi to sleep comfortably.

'Haha. How funny, I missed snow this year as well…*cough**cough*. Does snow hate me or something?'

'Was I sent here by a friend to protect me or by an enemy to get me?'

'Either way, both side seem to be doing a terrible job with their goals.'

'Haha..ha *cough**cough*… I wonder how everyone else is doing… I hope Tsuna-nee doesn't lose hope. I hope Sakura keeps improving so that when I can see her again she's stronger than before.'

Megumi opened the leaf cup with maggots inside of it and placed them on to the drying wound on his shoulder to help it heal quicker with the maggots eating away all the dead skin cells so that no bacteria fester in the wounds.

With nothing to do through the night, Megumi spent his time staring at a piece of leaf in between his fingers that he tried to crumple to train his elemental nature transformation, trying hard to stay awake in spite of the heavy fever he had already acquired.

…..

*clang**clang**clang**clang*

"Tsunade-sensei did you show the book to the daimyo yet?"

"Yes, I did that in the morning today."

"What was their reaction to it?"

*clang**clang*

"They found it quite amazing… the Daimyo's wife forced me to make as many as possible as soon as possible so that everyone could enjoy the book."

"What did you say?"

"I told her I would in a few more months."

"Yes, I'm sure Megumi would have contacted us until then."

"Yes."

In the distance sitting on the outer corridor that wrapped around the house or the Engawa, Mebuki and Shizune were seated on a tatami as they watched Tsunade and Sakura spar in swordsmanship while enhancing their strength using chakra.

Mebuki would usually be napping in the afternoon but since she could no longer fall asleep as easily as before she stayed around to keep Shizune company while Tsunade and Sakura practiced.

She was also here since a few times in the last week, Sakura and Tsunade had sometimes disagreed about a few things and fought against each other seriously nearly causing destruction inside the capital.

At times Sakura was angry with Tsunade because she felt Tsunade hadn't used enough of her influence to find out what happened to Megumi, while at time Tsunade blamed Sakura for wanting to get rid of Megumi because of which he was no longer with them.

Neither of them truly meant any of it, but they just spoke out words because they wanted to vent out their frustrations and feelings to someone who'd listen to them and understand the same pain they felt.

They didn't want anyone to advice them, just listen and they were the perfect fit for each other, it was just that sometimes they got a little heated up.

*swoosh*

Hearing the sound of the door opening, Mebuki stood up slowly and moved towards the door to see to Kizashi who had arrived.

As Mebuki's eyes met Kizashi's he simply shook his head a little to respond to the question Mebuki's eyes had asked.

Mebuki's eyes slightly dimmed but she still helped by moving to the living room and served both herself and Kizashi food to have together.

The both of them glanced at the third seat on the table that Megumi usually picked to sit and eat on while having food and laughing making random comments, a seat that would've been filled just about a week ago.

…..

'God damn! It is hard to do physical work with just a single hand!' Megumi said pushing around the tall grass that was in his way as he walked around on the forest floor.

'And what's with the bugs in the forests! I don't think I have a single spot on my body that has not been bitten and is not swollen because of it!'

It had been a week since Megumi had began his process of moving North from the South in an attempt to get closer to any sea so that he could build a ship to the continent that should be in the northern hemisphere.

During this entire time he had scoured for some tree resin to be used for drawing seals and had drawn a couple of them on the backs of strips of inner bark of wood that he collected from fallen trees and branches.

A clicking of wood sounded in the dense forest showing off the small card sized strips of wood that hung around his neck on a fibrous rope that passed though them like military dog tags.

A satchel hung around his waist that held lots of different berries and nuts, while another satchel around his shoulders was filled with leaves of aloe vera.

A third satchel on his chest held a few fruits that he had found and picked during the day, but left for being eaten during the night.

Gloves made of reeds were wrapped around his hand to keep it safe from burns while fighting the fire foxes.

Fire foxes as he had observed till now were only of one type, their body composed of flaming stones covered with skin that was on fire itself, they were all much smaller than the one he had fought the first time all of them just a meter tall unlike the first one that was about three meters in height.

The little fiery foxes usually used their claws to break or scratch wood and then drink the resin that dripped off of it, perhaps because simple water would just evaporate if they went close to it because of their flames.

*HISSSSS*

'I should find a way to move around on the trees like ninja would, if not I'll probably die by a snake bite soon enough.'

Jumping away from the forest floor and standing upside down from the branch of a tree nearby, Megumi observed as he spotted a snake rear its fangs from in between the tall grass that he was about to step on as he was moving through the dense forest.

*squeak*

Kaguya bit Megumi's ear as if scolding him for his sudden motion that would have thrown her off had she not learnt how to stick to a surface by using chakra from Megumi in the last week.

Looking down through the canopy of leaves on the tree he was standing on, Megumi spotted the sky darkening and even a few early rising bright stars of the sky.

*sigh*

'I guess this is it for today.'

Walking up on the side of the tree Megumi found himself sitting down on a branch quite high up from the ground in order to prevent coming in contact with the native animals of the forest, of which there were a lot off.

'Glad to know I didn't have to meet any fire foxes today. I guess I've left their territory. Then whose territory have I gotten into now? Or is it just free land? But there were still scratches on trees made from claws that the small fiery foxes make for drinking the sap of trees....hmm...'

Staring up at the sky and roughly estimating the time, Megumi pulled out a small strip of dry wood that had a few seals inscribed onto it from which he summoned a few dry leaves all tied to each other with vines around a larger stick like a cloth torch and stuck it into the wood after digging out a small hole into the branch with his fox claws that he had collected after hunting down a bunch of them.

'SSSSSSS'

A sudden flinch caused him to pull back his feet and look at his soles as he spotted a few new blisters forming and the older ones that had burst drying up with dead skin forming over them.

'I need to find a way to make boots for myself, can't just use dry reeds since that feels even more terrible to walk on… I wonder if I can in some way stitch the inner barks of trees, although less durable, perhaps it'll save my feet from this torture.'

Pulling out and dropping a small stone from another seal on the wooden bracelet on his wrist without ever directly coming into contact with it, Megumi carefully blew over the stone which caused it to light up and glow red hot.

'Strange how the foxes bodies are made up of actual rocks that are on fire.'

Carefully picking up the small stone by holding it with a chakra thread that was extended from his fingers, he brought it close to the fire stick and blew a little over the contact point so that fire could be made.

*crackle**crackle*

Hearing the slight crackling of fire, he pulled back the rock and sealed it back into the storage seal on his bracelet.

Resting his back on the tree he looked up at the sky that now had a lot more stars than earlier he closed his eyes to give himself time to rest for the night, but he made sure to keep his sleep light, just in case there was a wandering feisty fire fox that preferred hunting during the night like the one he had gotten todays batch of fire stones from.

-------------------------

Thank you for reading!

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