Chapter 18

It might not work with this monster with unlimited stamina, but I still advised. Naruto tilted his head in confusion as he stared at me. "Who is Jack?"

'This dunderhead.' I shook my head and replied, "That is not important, I'll see you in a year time. I hope I would not have left you too far behind when I return." I said as I walked away waving at him without looking back.

Just a few distance away, Mebuki had been patiently waiting. She cast one last look at Naruto before we walked away, disappearing in the distance. Naruto clenched his fists, fire burning in his eyes, before walking back into the village.

On our way, Mebuki asked without turning to look at me. "Your friend?"

"Mm." I merely nodded.

"I hope your attitude does not change when you eventually find out the truth." She sounded mysterious as we kept on walking.

"You mean about him being the son of the Forth Hokage or about him being the demon fox?" Her head whipped down to look at me with raised eyebrows, clearly surprised.

"What? I don't know if people are just actually dumb or just pretending. There are pictures of the hokages in the library. I may not know who his mother is but Naruto looks like his father." Of course, I was bullshiting. I had not seen a single picture of any of them. I was sure that if there was picture in the hokage office which anyone could see when they walked in there, then there would definitely be pictures in the library.

"As for him being a demon fox, I can't even count the number of times I have heard grown-ups call him that each time he passed. As absurd as it sounds, it is as if he is the very same fox that attacked the village a few years ago, transformed as Naruto. Since I know who his father is, then that possibility is a very hard pass. Then I can only assume the fourth hokage was powerful enough to seal the fox in his son." Mibuki looked at me surprised for a bit before narrowing her eyes.

"So?" She asked vaguely.

"So what?" I asked back, not wanting to give her the satisfaction.

"So, what do you think?" She asked again, continuing to be vague

"About what, I will need you to be more specific, my dear mother." I continued to play along with her.

"Stop being a smart-ass. What do you think about his circumstances?" She knocked on my head, finally fed up with the games. Honestly, such a violent woman.

"I cannot trust a village that takes their grief and frustrations on a victim of circumstance. Even more, I cannot trust a leader that sits back comfortably and watch as the child of the Fourth Hokage is bullied." I spoke with a straight face without looking up at Mebuki as we continued on our way.

"Good, we would have turned back if I had heard something else from you." My conjecture may have been right after all. Looking at things, she was nothing like Tsunade Senju who had retired mostly as a result of losing both her lover, Dan Kato and her brother, Nawaki Senju. She seemed happy being a housewife.

Then I could only assume she either disagreed with the methods of the village and the heads or she saw and/or did something during her active time. It could be both, but from her statement I was willing to bet it was the former.

'All the better for me.' I feigned a surprised look, which looked to have satisfied her. "Wait, what do you mean?" She ignored me as we kept walking, again, annoyingly trying to be mysterious.

"Okay, we are far enough from the village. We will be moving through the forests. Your training will begin now. From here on out we will move quickly till we get to our first stop." I saw her smirk evilly which made me gulp a little.

"We will be moving with the body flicker till we get there. Try and keep up my dear daughter, and do not fall on your face too much. Oh, and do not fall too far behind. There are quite the dangerous beasts around." After speaking, she disappeared quickly and silently. There was no whoosh sound of wind resistance.

I began moving with it as well with puffs and puffs of smoke, compared to the woman who was seamlessly moving through the dense trees. Mebuki was fast, but although far ahead she had slowed down enough for me to not completely lose sight of her, occasionally looking back at me mockingly.

It was difficult to move like that. I needed to be careful not to slam into trees or trip on roots, while at the same time I needed to keep my eye on Mebuki to know the direction we were moving. Dividing my concentration like that forced me to use more chakra than I initially felt comfortable with back on the Hokage mountain.

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60 stones = 1 chapter

120 stones = 3 chapters

300 stones = 5 chapters.

Previous Goal reached= 149.

Current reached = 11