Chapter 10: Summoning Island and Unknown Connections
Haku and Jugo were right behind me as we dashed through the forest towards the researchers and towards the little girl who detected me. I was running on tree branches with Haku following along, though Jugo almost kept falling, so he was trailing behind by about 10 meters. We had to slightly slow our pace as to not attract some of the bigger creatures. As we approached the research lab, I once again activated my Byakugan to scout ahead.
I saw that the three women were now sitting at a table, discussing something in a serious manner, while the researchers were in another room, looking through some documents. I also scanned the outside, looking for guards, and found only two shinobi guards, both of chunnin level judging by their relaxed expression and small chakra supply. Strangely, they weren't wearing their protectors, though I could see them in their bags, and knew that they were Grass Shinobi.
This would be our first time fighting against shinobi, but thankfully, I think they believe the summoning animals are sufficient guards for the island because they have their guards down completely.
I had noticed that even though the summoning animals were able to spot us, and some were even turning to attack us, the moment they saw Jugo, they shrunk away in fear. I guess his ridiculous talent for gathering natural energies made him look like a huge beast to them, who rely mostly on instinct rather than intelligence.
As I signalled to Jugo and Haku to stop at the edge of the treeline, I removed a bone kunai from my [Inventory]. Jugo and Haku both know about my [Inventory] ever since I stored the wagon, though they believe that it is a type of space-time ninjutsu from my family's storehouse. I had told them this because I had no other way to explain this to them when I would inevitably pull out our wagon in the Land of Fire when they would have clearly seen that the wagon had no way of fitting into the fisherman's boat.
The kunai I held, I then gave to Haku to throw. She was far more accurate than me in terms of kunai throwing skills, and I had decided to allow her to do more work whenever there wasn't a life-threatening circumstance.
She immediately threw the kunai at lighting speed right in between the two shinobi, who were stunned at the strange projectile, and turned their heads towards the treeline.
That turning of their heads would be all that I needed, however, as I activated the [Flying Thunder God] and appeared behind them in an instant. I rose my palms and struck their backs with the Gentle Fist, knocking them out instantly.
'Well that was anticlimactic' I thought, before signaling Jugo and Haku over to me.
"The girl is inside with two other women. They all have massive amounts of chakra but judging from how they are dressed, I don't think they are shinobi, or at least they are not active shinobi. We should be careful" I say.
"What are you doing!?" A girl with red hair, brown narrow glasses, and who looks to be about 7 yells as she turns the corner.
I immediately use swift release and appear behind her before covering her mouth. I am stunned beyond belief. 'THIS IS KARIN!' I yell in my mind.
'How is she here!? I was going to stop by Kusagakure on my way to pick up Tsunade but if she is here, then who are the other two women!?' I think to myself before whispering in her ears "Don't move. Don't scream. I'm going to release you in just a moment, but I want you to know that we are not going to hurt you."
Karin looks at me from the side, as she cannot turn her head much with my mouth covering her head. She looks at me for a second before nodding, and I release her.
"Who are you, people. Why did you attack Unko and Muda?" She asks.
"My name is Haruka, the lovely girl over there is Haku, and the orange head is Jugo," I say.
"Hey!" Hugo says as Haku bows respectfully, while trying to hold back a blush.
"We are here because our boat's captain, who was sailing us to the Land of Fire, was abducted by a large brown bird. Do you know anything?"
"Ah!"
"Ah?"
"That's Kasshoku. She is a summoning bird that works for one of the researchers here." She begins to explain. At this point, we are all huddled into a group kneeling down as though this were some sort of gossip circle.
"What are the researchers doing on this island? Why are they abducting people?" Haku asked.
"I don't know the details, but my mom and her sister were hired to create a summoning contract with the creatures on this island. Apparently, they breed summoning creatures here to sell to shinobi" Karin said as she pushed up her glasses.
'Wait a second!? I know this island! This is Summoning Island. It was in one of the fillers of Naruto Shippuden. In that episode, Naruto and the gang find the Ultimate Summoning Beast after the ghost of a girl called Honoka leads them to it. If I remember correctly, the Ultimate Summoning Beast is a Chimera of all the summoning beasts on this island and it is capable of using Genjutsu, lightning release, and wind release jutsu while being fast enough to react to Might Guy while he opened the 6th Gate and durable enough to withstand tanking multiple full-power strikes from Guy in base. He could also absorb chakra and wasn't affected by the chakra suppression of Yamato's wood release. The researchers said that they wanted to use a sealing method on it to control it similar to a Jinchuriki since the other methods wouldn't work.' I thought, giving exposition to myself.
"So miss..."
"Karin"
"Miss Karin. Is it possible to get summoning contracts with some of the creatures on this island?" I ask. I am masking my advanced knowledge of what is really happening here by asking. Perhaps she could even introduce me to her mother and Honoka, who I can recruit.
"Hmmm... I suppose so, but I'll have to ask my mom first. She is a medic here and her sister is the master at fuinjutsu, so she is the one who would be making the contract for you." Karin says.
"Thanks! Your the best!" I say giving her a bright smile.
Karin blushes for a minute before getting up and turning to go back inside and calling her mother. We all stand up and I look at Jugo and Haku for a moment. Jugo is giving me a knowing smirk and nodding, while Haku has a troubled expression on her face.
"Haruka-sama. Do you like that girl?" She asks
'I never thought Haku would be jealous of me. I had kind of assumed she had a crush on me due to the fact that she always clings to me when we sleep and that she has been stealing glances at me the whole boat ride, but I didn't want to assume.'
"I suppose I like her well enough, though don't worry. I like you more" I say as I approach her and pet her on her head.
Haku only goes silent and blushes slightly s I rub her head. Jugo seems to be enjoying this moment, probably thinking he can use it to tease me later as payback for always teasing him. I turn around as Karin returns with her mother and another woman.
Karin's mother is a fairly tall beautiful woman, with shoulder cut, straight red hair, and grey eyes. She is wearing a long-sleeve brown shirt and grey pants. She also has several bite marks on her neck that is mostly hidden from the cowl she has on.
Honoka, on the other hand, is a fairly short woman with long red hair reaching to her upper back, grey eyes, and a white band on her forehead. She is wearing a sleeveless purple kimono with yellow trimmings and has her obi tied with a white bow with long streamers coming from it. Strangely, she isn't wearing any shoes.
'The Ultimate Summoning Beast incident must be happening today, as Honoka is wearing the same outfit she appeared in as a ghost.' I think to myself.
"Good afternoon. My name is Haruka, the beautiful girl whose head I am patting is Haku, and the orange-haired boy who is smugly nodding to himself and ignoring his surroundings is Jugo. It is a pleasure to meet you" I say politely introducing our little group. Haku is red from embarrassment and steam seems to be coming from her face, as Jugo is too busy thinking of strategies of revenge to notice.
Honoka ad Karin's mother look at each other for a moment before looking back at me and introducing themselves.
"Good afternoon. My name is Hikari Uzumaki, and I am Karin's mother" Hikari said.
"My name is Honoka Uzumaki! How are ya!" Honoka says as she introduces herself energetically.
"I am fine. Thank you. I was hoping to form a summoning contract with some of the creatures of this island along with my companions."
"Okay! I can help you with that! This Honoka is the foremost summoning expert in the entire world! I can get you summoning contracts with any animal!" Honoka says as she starts to brag.
'Uzumaki sure are a cheerful bunch. Between Naruto, Kushina, Karin, and now Honoka, it seems that unless they live a truly terrible life like Nagato, they seem rather energetic and friendly. They haven't even asked about the Kusa nin that we have knocked out behind us' I think to myself. 'Although Naruto also lived a terrible life, I guess that being a shonen main character, he had to be cheerful'.
"Thank you! We will be relying on you for now." I say
Honoka runs back inside for a moment, as I can hear loud bans and crashes as she cartoonishly searches through her things just out of my field of view. She returns carrying dozens of large scrolls.
"Alright!" I've got scrolls for summoning contracts with Dogs, Wolves, Birds, Fish, and I even have a few blank scrolls for making your own contracts!" Honoka states proudly, puffing out her chest.
"Can we have a moment to discuss it?" I ask. I want us to take the unmarked contracts so I can make one with the Ultimate Summoning Beast, but I want to make sure that Jugo and Haku don't want any of the other ones.
We huddle together, somehow Karin has huddled with us, but I pay it no mind. "Alright, I'm not going to lie to you. I feel an immense amount of chakra coming from the Volcano, so I want to make a contract with some of the creatures inside it." I state my reasoning.
"I will follow your led Haruka-sama" Haku says.
"I think I will take the bird summoning scroll" Said Jugo. I knew he always liked birds, as for whatever reason, birds would always fly up to him and land on his shoulders whenever he was standing or sitting still for more than a minute.
"Alright. It'll also be good for travel and scouting in the future" I say, giving him a small nod.
"I want to check out that chakra signature in the volcano as well. Mom never lets me leave the building by myself and it's boring" Karin complains.
"Alright!" I turn to Honoka and Kikari and say "Jugo would like to make a bird summoning contract, while Karin, Haku, and I would like blank contracts."
"Okay!" Honoka says as she tosses us our contracts. I reach into my bag and take out 20,000 Ryo and prepare to give it to Honoka, but she raises her hand and refuses it.
"I don't want any money. Just be sure to be friends with Karin-chan, ok!"
"Don't worry. We won't be leaving Karin any time soon!" I say
Karin has a slight blush as I give her one of the blank summoning scrolls.
"Oh. Karin, are you also making a summoning contract? Make sure to bring Unko and Muda with you so that you don't get hurt" Hikari states.
"about that. I think we can protect Karin better than them after all" I say, pointing to the two unconscious shinobi laying there like dead fish.
Honoka bursts into laughter at this, while Hikari has a slightly troubled expression.
"Oh dear. We were going to Kusagakure after seeing off Honoka today, but I suppose now we will have to wait" She says.
'SAVED!' I thought. If we had arrived even a few hours later, Karin and her mother would have had a fate of suffering until Hikari died and Karin joined Orochimaru.
"Why don't you travel with us!?" Haku interjects.
"Yeah. We are going to Konoha after we pick up a few more people" Jugo continues.
'I'm the leader, right? I'm the one who should be recruiting people right!?' I thought as I looked at my two spokespeople.
"My oh my. I wanted to go to Konoha at first, but the Kusa shinobi insisted that they take me there. They said that they had an important job for me" Hikari said.
"Well, nothing is more important than your daughter, right? Konoha is known for its peaceful atmosphere and the Uzumaki Clan is still going strong there" I say. "It would be for the best if you were to journey with us since rather than being surrounded by strangers in an unknown land, it's better to be in a village with other Uzumaki members, right!?"
It's true, I had quickly checked my compass and thousands of Uzumaki were gathered together in Konoha's general area, while there were no other Uzumaki in any of the other major nations with the exception of one being in the Rain village, and the three that are in front of me.
"Well, ok. You seem to be strong enough to protect us and I guess your right about being with other Uzumaki, but how can I trust you?" Hikari said. I was pleased to see that she was willing to trust me, so I pulled a Krillin and thought to myself...
'Senzu Bean!' as I took one out of my [Inventory], though I pretended to take it from my bag, and presented it to her.
"Ah! That's..." Haku said.
Hikari picked up the bean and looked at it for a moment before looking at me with a 'what is this?' face. Honoka was looking at it with a mix of curiosity and excitement. She wanted to know how such a small bean could possibly win the trust of her sister.
"Eat it and you will find out" I said. Hikari looked at me for a long while before accepting and chewing and swallowing the tasteless bean.
Immediately, her skin became clearer and her barely visible bit marks glowed a faint green color before fading. Hikari was stunned for a moment before quickly raising her sleeve to reveal a pristine arm, as smooth as a baby's bottom, with no scars or marks whatsoever.
Honoka was also shocked, while Karin looked on with a surprised face. They thought that the marks left by the use of the Chakra Bite would never go away, so when I erased them using a bean, they couldn't process the information. All the while, Hikari stood, inspecting herself, as tears began to stream down her face.
She began to weep and quickly threw herself on me as she broke down crying. She had believed that her marks would never heal, and that her arms, which were so full of scar tissue that there was no more bare unharmed skin below her wrists, would forever be cursed into looking hideous.
She was soon followed by her daughter and sister who both began to weep with her, as a group hug developed. Both Karin and Honoka knew that Hikari had a complex about her arms and that she tried very hard to hide or heal them but to no avail, so when they saw that they were finally healed, they were thrilled and began to weep tears of happiness alongside Hikari.
As the afternoon passed, I stood there holding the Uzumaki women in my tiny embrace, letting them cry their eyes out.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Golden_Slime
Golden_Slime Another long chapter. Also, I know I said that Tsunade was going to make an appearance in this chapter, but I decided to extend their time before arriving in the Land of Fire.
My OC seems to be developing a hero complex all of a sudden, though once they get to Konoha, he will be far less willing to use all of his assets to help others.