Chapter 38: Self-Petrification
(2 Days Later) (Kamui's Point of View)
In the past couple of days, they made great progress. The group had been walking for two days now and were less than a day away from leaving the serpents' pit.
Kamui spent most of her down time either reflecting on her clones' experiences on sensing the jungle around them or trying to develop a method to manipulate the botflies.
With the extra practice in the new environment, Kamui was just beginning to sense the positions of the various jungle creatures. She was even able to predict their encounter with a few predators, much to her sensei's interest. It was pretty obvious they'd be having a talk later, not that she minded.
"Hey Kamui." Reina called out.
"Yes?" she replied.
"Are you still trying to think of something to affect the botflies? It doesn't look like you're making too much progress." Reina asked in confusion; Kamui had been pretty absorbed in this effort for the last couple of days, creating shadow clones to try out the methods from a distance.
"Of course. Why wouldn't I keep trying? We literally have nothing better to do and my clones are doing just fine with the recon. It's perfectly reasonable." Kamui explained, not seeing anything odd in her behavior.
Before Reina could refute, Yugao spoke from the side, "Normally, I'd say it's irresponsible to waste chakra on a mission. Considering your unique circumstances though, I don't think that's a problem. As long as your shadow clones maintain awareness of the area, your experiments are preferable. What progress have you made?"
Unlike Reina, Yugao didn't really know what Kamui had been doing in her pursuits and didn't have the botfly knowledge to understand whether the girl's methods were working. Hence, her curiosity.
Hearing the question, Kamui's expression soured. "I haven't made any progress in manipulating their behavior. I need more information on them…. I did come up with a method to buy us time to do more though…" she complained, a little optimism shining through toward the end.
"Oh? What method would that be?" Reina asked, genuinely curious at what possible solution the girl could come up with; she hadn't seen anything of the sort.
Kamui's face lit of in a bright smile. Raising her hand, a hollow spiraling sphere of wind hovered above it.
Seeing this, Yugao's eyes widened.
"You want to trap them… why? Yugao asked, confused at why Kamui wouldn't just chase them away or kill them like a normal person.
From the side, Reina's face silently asked the same question. It wasn't too much of a stretch to assume that if Kamui created this sphere to contain them, then she had a means for a more permanent solution. Why though? What would anyone want with flesh-eating insects?
"I want to send a group of them back to my father. I imagine the Aburame would be interested in these. If anyone could figure these things out and make use of them, it's them." Kamui replied, dispelling the swirling wind sphere. "Just because we couldn't figure anything out doesn't mean they can't. With their expertise, I'm sure these flies will be serving Konoha in no time." She finished with a devious smile.
Yugao shuddered at the thought.
'To think the already creepy Aburame clan could start using these…. things.' she lamented internally. She'd probably have to make a concerted effort to avoid missions with that clan going forward once these flies are in circulation.
Reina shook her head, baffled at Kamui's suggestion. They had never considered using these creatures as tools against their enemies. Then again, they weren't experts in domestication, they specialized in medicine and poisons. From their perspective, the only things they cared about from the wildlife on this island were the toxins they produced.
"Well, if that's what you want to do, it looks like you'll have your chance soon. From what I can see, there's a small swarm approaching from the west." Reina pointed out, taking no small amount of joy in the two's discomfort from the side.
Despite being here for a couple of days, the danger these flies posed terrified the two Kunoichi. Death by jutsu was something they had prepared their minds for. Living with parasitic worms burrowed beneath your skin was a nightmare that they weren't trained to accept. It was a wonder the girl wanted to bring these to her village. If Reina didn't know how much these hidden villages valued their military strength, she would think the girl a fool.
"Great! Can you spare one of your bait balls? It'd make it a lot easier to gather them." Kamui confidently stated, ignoring her sensei who was steadily backing away from the approaching swarm. She was of a similar mind to back up, but this was necessary. Plus, it's not like she'd be getting close to the approaching swarm without protection.
"Sure. At the rate we've been encountering them, I think we should have enough to get through this jungle. It shouldn't be a problem to part with one for this investment." Reina answered, handing Kamui a ball.
"While I'm doing this, can you write a short summary of these flies that I can send to the fourth?" she asked, taking the bait in her hands.
"I can do you one better." Reina stated, unsealing a small book from her belt. "This is a handbook our clan gives its members containing information on the various insects in this land; I've memorized its contents for the most part, so I don't need it. I'll put a bookmark on the botfly's page and we can include this with the sealed flies."
Kamui agreed and moved toward the flies. With a quick toss, the bait flew toward the swarm. It didn't take long for the flies to smell the bait and gather around it in a large mass.
Seeing this, Yugao muttered to herself from her spot behind Reina, "There has to be at least two hundred of these things…. shouldn't they be traveling by themselves with how they lay their eggs."
Reina shook her head.
"They only travel by themselves when its time to reproduce. For normal feedings, traveling with a swarm is much safer. It gives them a fighting chance against predators." She explained. Mentally, she agreed at the absurdity of these insects; Outwardly though, she showed no signs, keeping her composure.
Once the flies were sufficiently gathered, Kamui's sharingan began spinning hypnotically, their glow intensifying. Using her eyes to focus her intent, she focused on mentally defining the containment area. With that, the air surrounding the flies rapidly spun in a sphere resembling the rasengan. It spun in all directions, creating a wind barrier that prevented the flies from escaping. The hard part was doing this without also invoking wind chakra's natural propensity toward cutting. Without using a focus like her eyes, it would be almost impossible to use this type of technique without shredding the flies inside.
Once the barrier was fully formed and the flies trapped, she created a silvery-white sphere of chakra around the barrier. With this, the flies didn't have a way out. They may be able to eat normal chakra, but hers should be a lot harder to consume without harming themselves in a short period. With that, she unsealed a twenty-gallon pot made of silvery-white wood; it's something she had a shadow clone make out of sight at one point on the previous day.
With the container in place, she dispelled the wind barrier and forcefully guided the flies into the pot with her chakra. Finally, she sealed it with a small stone acting as the lid and a simple seal to keep it place, regretfully noticing the loss of over one hundred flies in the process. It was lucky that the swarm was so big or this may have been a fruitless effort.
"Reina, the booklet." Kamui called out.
Reina nodded and tossed it over; she had bookmarked it during the capturing process.
Grabbing the book, Kamui took out a tri-pronged Kunai and a note detailing the find and her intentions for the pot. Putting the pot, booklet, and note together, she planted the Kunai in front of the pile.
'Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder' she thought as a space time barrier formed around the pile, flashing it away to her father.
"Alright done!" Kamui happily stated, turning back to the group.
Reina shook her head in astonishment at the sight.
"No wonder Konoha is the strongest village. Being able to teleport resources across vast distances like that is a boon like no other, especially in a war. The decision to join Konoha was the best our clan has made in years."
Agreeing, Yugao spoke with similar amazement, "Indeed. That jutsu is the real reason why the nations have been at peace so long. Just by hav—"
In an instant, jaws the size of the Hokage Residence shot out of the ground beneath Yugao's feet at the speed of sound. Once they fully exited the ground, they snapped shut with seemingly enough force to crush mountains. The assaulting beast soon realized something though, its prey tasted oddly like the trees around them. Discerning its immediate area, it figured out the reason; it didn't swallow her. A log was in her place before he could finish crushing her beneath its teeth. Frustrated at failing its initial ambush, a massive roar escaped its jaws, causing every nearby creature to flee for their lives.
Feeling around itself, the beast felt its prey and her two companions fleeing in the same direction they had been going in earlier. Not wanting its meal to escape, it pursued.
A few miles away, the three sped away, sticking to the ground despite their instincts to use the trees.
"What the hell was that!?" Yugao voiced both hers and her student's questions.
"That" Reina started. "is a Giga-Crocalisk. It's one of the apex predators in this region. It's a crocodile the size of a tailed-beast with a similar capacity for destruction." She stutteringly explained, failing to hide the fear in her voice.
Annoyed at the new information, Yugao turned to her student.
"Wait, how did you miss that Kamui!? I thought you were scanning the area! How could you miss something that large!?" She shouted, trying her best to convey her anger at almost becoming that beast's lunch.
"I don't know. I couldn't see it. You would think I would've detected a heartbeat or something similar. I didn't though, not the slightest twitch on its part." Kamui shouted back.
"That's to be expected." Reina stated, listening to the rapidly approaching sound of their predator. "It's known for embodying the pinnacle of patience in its hunts. It uses a form of self-petrification to prevent itself from moving or being detected as anything other than a rock. This also prevents others from detecting its body heat or perceiving the sounds made by its internal organs, regardless of how strong their senses are. We don't actually know how it finds prey; all things considered; it shouldn't be able to."
*Boom* A massive black three-eyed snake with jagged scales and a crocodile's jaws burst out from the ground as if it were a leviathan in the ocean. It shook the earth as its jaws hit the jungle floor. Quickly, its snake body rushed in their direction at its fastest speed.
"What the hell!? Why is it chasing us!?" Kamui screamed in confusion.
"Yeah, shouldn't it look for something bigger!?" Yugao mirrored her student's sentiments. They were pretty small, so they shouldn't be worth the effort.
"I really don't know. It's never been this persistent when hunting people before. We simply don't have enough meat to justify it." Reina stated as clearly as she could during a life-or-death chase.
Lunging, the snake shot forward toward Kamui, who flashed forward in a quick teleport.
"Can't you just use your genjutsu on this thing!?" Kamui asked, internally thanking her dad for teaching her to teleport.
"I can't! *pant* You see that third eye!? It lets it see through illusions!" Reina shouted back. She was having the hardest time maintaining this pace. While she was officially ranked as a jonin-level shinobi in her village, she didn't have near the stamina of the two Konoha Kunoichi.
Kamui unsealed a smoke bomb in her hand. Glancing to her sensei, their eyes made contact. Receiving a nod, Kamui launched the smoke bomb ahead of their group.
The bomb exploded, covering a large amount of the surrounding area in a plume of black smoke. Once the group went in, a dozen groups of three went in different directions. Kamui had created enough shadow clones to make twelve groups of three and transformed their appearances to match the person they were impersonating.
The real group changed directions to head 90 degrees right from their original heading, trying to confuse the beast.
It didn't work.
Without missing a beat, the beast chased the real group ignoring the impersonators. It didn't bother considering the others.
"What Now!? It doesn't look like it fell for it! I told you its eye could see through illusions." Reina asked, a little annoyed that they tried a strategy like that against this type of beast.
"Don't worry about it; just keep running and trust us. Everything's going according to plan." Yugao calmly responded, finally regaining her composure.
Annoyed at what she considered a stupid plan, Reina hesitantly nodded, her eyes narrowed as if considering whether Yugao was lying.
"By the way, why don't we just kill this thing?" Kamui asked, curious at why they didn't just try putting it down.
"We're in a jungle of omni-present toxins Kamui. Facing an apex predator in a situation where we don't know the affects our jutsu will have on the environment isn't wise." Yugao stated, understanding where her student was coming from. In any other situation, this beast would have been killed a while ago.
"I second her opinion Kamui. This Crocalisk is a freak of nature in attack and defense. Legend states that it fought the three tails to a standstill many years in the past. Basically, it can take serious hits. A battle with it would only draw attention from similar-level threats." Reina put in her two cents, while simultaneously letting the group know that this beast wasn't the only predator at its level.
Shaking her head, Kamui ended her line of questioning, deciding to continue their escape in silence. Luckily for their group, the other venomous beasts in this jungle were running away from the Crocalisk too, so they didn't have to worry about them.
The chase continued for another two hours, where the distance between them and the approaching threat didn't grow. In fact, it started shrinking in the last few minutes with Reina's stamina finally reaching its limits.
"*Pant* Are you *Pant* sure this is going according to plan?" Reina managed to get out in her exhausted state.
"We're sure." Yugao replied, then turned to her white-haired student. "Speaking of plans. Kamui are you ready?" She asked, not showing any real level of fatigue. She had been in pursuits spanning days before; this was nothing.
"I'm ready. Both of you, grab my hands." Kamui replied, her hands extending toward the two other Kunoichi.
Yugao was quick about it. Reina was a little slower due to her confusion, but still did it quickly.
For the beast though, this was what it needed. Whatever it was that this group of prey were doing slowed them down significantly. Seeing its chance, it lunged with everything it had; it had already expended a lot of energy today and it wanted to get back to resting. This was the perfect opportunity for it to end this farce.
Before it could reach them though, they were gone. Startled, the beast reached its senses out as far as it could. There was nothing, not a trace of where they were, nor were there any clues of where they had gone. Furious, it let out a cataclysmic roar and began plunging into the direction of one of its nearby hunting spots; it needed food and it knew just the prey to eat in its frustration.
(Outside the Jungle) (Kamui's Point of View)
Three shadow clones sat in a small cave they had found soon after exiting the perimeter of the serpents' pit. Between them, a tri-pronged kunai lay stuck into the ground.
Moments later, a silvery-white flash shined into existence and faded, revealing the three original kunoichi. With their appearance, the shadow clones dispelled themselves.
"What the hell *Pant* happened?" Reina asked, an exhausted state of confusion clear on her face.
"The group of clones I sent out earlier weren't distractions or bait; they were teleportation points." Kamui explained.
Hearing this, Reina's eyes widened in a stunned realization. She hadn't even considered that possibility. After all, that maneuver was normally supposed to confuse pursuers. It didn't normally account for teleportation.
Seeing the shock in her eyes, the two Konoha Kunoichi sported proud smiles. This was one of the few team-based maneuvers the two had actually practiced. It was perfect for escapes; most enemies simply didn't have a way to counter it outside of overwhelming numbers. Even then, Kamui could just make an overwhelming amount of shadow clones.
"Now, let's figure out where we are." Yugao stated, deciding to drop the bragging rights opportunity in favor of mission protocol.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone