As various sailors, birds, and his sensei kept throwing things at him at random times while he was expected to work - this had started out bad but was slowly getting better.
Dodging three rocks and a seagull, barely noticing them at this point, Naruto grumbled about this "being the worst trip he'd ever been on and when was the REAL training going to start?"
At which point a wrought iron wrench whacked him in the back of the leg and he spent several moments hanging by his toes as those damn seagulls LAUGHED at him. Well, he didn't speak seagull but it sure SOUNDED like they were laughing at him.
"LAND HO!" called out the lookout.
"Eh?" asked Naruto, quickly righting himself and then scrambling up to the crow's nest himself.
The lookout handed the telescope over. "Over your seasickness there?"
"Mostly," admitted Naruto, though up in the crow's nest each move of the ship seemed amplified and threatened to return him to the "puking everything he had up, then reaching into the future so he could puke stuff up he hadn't eaten yet" category that he'd spent most of the first day in.
The lookout took the spyglass back as soon as Naruto lowered it.
"So is that 'Konmei'?" asked Naruto.
"Most likely," said the lookout. "Be careful when you get there, even the roughest members of the crew don't go past the dock area."
"You forget who you're talking to," said Naruto with cocky grin in place and only a faint tinge of green to indicate the swelling nausea within him.
"A reckless chunin ninja whose mouth routinely signs bills the rest of him has to pay for?" asked the lookout, scratching under his grizzly beard.
"That's right, I, ... hey!" said Naruto.
"Konmei attracts ALL sorts, but mostly everyone does their business and leaves as quickly as they came," said the lookout. "It's a dangerous place. You might be with one of the Three Sages of the Leaf Village, but he can't pull your butt out of every fire you wander into in there."
"Aw, I'll be alright, I can handle myself!" insisted Naruto.
"You see that sailor right there?" asked the lookout, pointing down and to the side.
"Yeah that big guy with the pegleg? He lose his leg there or something?" asked Naruto. "He don't talk much."
"He CAN'T talk," said the lookout. "He wandered into a shop, came out with one leg missing below the knee, no vocal chords, and he's been known to cough up some bright blue stuff from time to time."
"Blue stuff?" asked Naruto skeptically.
"You notice our hull's painted blue?" asked the lookout. "We just collect it and paint it on stuff before it finishes drying. Barnacles hate the stuff and it seems to protect wood treated with it."
"Ick..." said Naruto as he considered the bright blue rails he'd walked barefoot on earlier.
"Two other sailors went in there on another occasion," said the lookout. "We got the clothes back from one of them, and the other we ended up selling to a circus. Two headed llama."
"What's a llama?" asked Naruto.
"Sort of a small horse," said the lookout with a shrug. "Took us awhile just to find someone who knew what the heck he was. Thing is, if you linger in Konmei you'll eventually run into something you CAN'T handle. Docks are safe. So is a lot of the city during the day. At night, get indoors."
"Oh," said Naruto with a shrug. "Why? Ghosts?"
"How'd you know?" asked the lookout.
Naruto was quiet for a moment. When he spoke it was without any cockiness in his voice or manner at all. "You're saying there are... ghosts?"
"Ghosts, vengeful spirits, hauntings, and worse," said the lookout. "We'll have about three hours of daylight left when we dock, if we keep our current speed. Then we'll probably anchor off and load first thing in the morning."
gurgleeeeeeeeeeeeeee warned Naruto's stomach.
"WAGH!" said Naruto as he fled down the mainmast.
"Landlubbers," said the lookout, bracing himself and keeping an eye out. Just because they were in sight of port didn't mean that pirates or a leviathen or something couldn't show up.
"They call me mad, mad yes, yes they do," said the jutsu researcher. "They think I can't hear them. Can't hear their little whispers and mutters. Don't see them glance over and then look away. Yes. Yes."
"Dude!" yelled someone from another dock entirely. "You're scaring the freaking ghosts around here! Take a vacation or something!"
"Bah, they don't understand. Understand my genius," said the researcher. "They don't understand I saw it. Saw into its eyes. Saw it then. Saw it all pretty pretty and laid out like some tangled skein of Christmas tree lights drawn by Escher. They don't understand. They don't even know who Escher is, what Christmas tree lights are, or what it is I saw in all its terrible greatness. Jutsu Barrier ACTIVATE!"
"Uh oh," said the neighbor.
"What now?" asked another neighbor.
"The ghosts. They're fleeing the neighborhood and they aren't even waiting for nightfall," said the neighbor.
"Oh HELL, I just knew it was going to be one of those days," complained the other neighbor. "And it isn't even Tuesday yet."
"Well, at least he aimed away from OUR shops," said the first neighbor. "Wonder if he'll revert to normal now?"
"They usually do," answered the second.
"Well, it isn't like what old Samani did at least, we were cleaning the windows for days after he snapped back to normal."
"So this place is dangerous?" asked Naruto, looking it over. Some of the buildings looked like they'd blow over in a good wind.
"Compared to the 'Forest Of Death' this place isn't all that bad," said Jiraiya. "Just don't bump up against anyone, touch anything, buy anything, look in any windows, or speak to anyone. THEN it might be a good deal worse."
"Eh?" asked Naruto, picking up a scrap of paper that had blown up against his leg.
"What?" asked Jiraiya, turning to ask.
blip!
Naruto stared around him. "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!"
"What did you do?!" demanded Jiraiya.
"HOW THE HELL..." Naruto stopped and took a closer look at the paper in one hand.
"I told you 'don't touch anything' didn't I?" asked Jiraiya, his voice calm and reasonable.
"Erk," said Naruto, correctly interpreting this as a danger sign. "It's nothing."
"We're in some sort of barrier jutsu," said Jiraiya. "Odd though. You get the feeling we're in motion but it's hard to tell which direction we're moving in."
"Hey, it really is nothing, it looks like a grocery list," complained Naruto now that he could look at the paper.
"Get ready Naruto," warned Jiraiya, putting the whole 'discipline the student' thing into a 'For Later' category. "It's very likely we'll emerge in enemy territory."
"You mean... Hinata?!" asked Naruto, not ready to face The Wrath Of The Vengeful.
"Maybe," said Jiraiya. "Or Akatsuki or any number of other foes. It feels like we're slowing down."
The bubble popped as quickly as it formed, and Jiraiya and Naruto found themselves on:
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(Posted Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:19)
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