(300B3, Guys Give me your Powerstones, We are very close to the Top 20)
Chapter 19: The Destined One
Sora stretched lazily as he finished his daily training routine. The sun was high in the sky, and a gentle breeze rustled through the leaves of Konoha's many trees. With the Chunin Exams just a few days away, most genin were frantically preparing, but Sora? Well, he had other ideas.
"Hmm, what to do, what to do," he mused aloud, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "I could prank Kakashi-sensei again, but last time he retaliated by replacing all my clothes with spandex jumpsuits. Lee was thrilled, but I'm still finding green fabric in unexpected places."
As he pondered his options, a sudden thought struck him like a bolt of lightning. "Wait a minute! What about that reverse summoning jutsu I read about in the Hokage's secret library? ...Which I definitely didn't break into. Nope. Not me."
Excitement bubbled up inside him as he remembered the details. According to the scroll, performing the jutsu would transport the user to the realm of the animal they were destined to form a summoning contract. It was typically used by Jonin or experienced chunin, but since when had Sora ever let silly things like "rules" or "common sense" stop him?
"Well, no time like the present!" he declared, cracking his knuckles dramatically. "I wonder what kind of majestic, powerful creature I'll be connected to? A dragon? A phoenix? Ooh, maybe those ninja ostriches I've heard about!"
With a grin that would have made any sensible adult very, very nervous, Sora began forming the hand seals. His chakra swirled around him, building to a crescendo as he completed the final seal.
"Reverse Summoning Jutsu!"
There was a loud "poof" and a puff of smoke. When it cleared, Sora found himself... in a forest?
"Huh," he said, looking around. "This is a bit anticlimactic. I was expecting something more... I don't know, mystical? With glowing mushrooms or talking trees or-"
His monologue was cut short as he realized he wasn't alone. Dozens of beady eyes were staring at him from the surrounding trees and bushes. As his vision adjusted to the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy, he realized what those eyes belonged to.
Squirrels. Hundreds of squirrels.
And they did not look happy.
"Uh, hi there!" Sora said, waving awkwardly. "I come in peace? I definitely haven't stolen any nuts recently, if that's what you're wondering."
The squirrels continued to stare, their tiny paws twitching as if itching to throw something. Preferably something hard and painful.
Suddenly, a deep voice boomed from above, causing Sora to jump. "Hooman, it seems that you are fated to our clan."
Sora looked up to see the source of the voice: a squirrel easily the size of a bear, perched on a massive branch. Its fur was a dignified silver, and it wore what appeared to be a tiny acorn-shaped crown.
"Oh, wow," Sora breathed. "You're like, the Squirrel King or something, right? Do I bow? Or offer you a nut? I'm a little fuzzy on squirrel etiquette."
The giant squirrel's eye twitched slightly. "I am the Elder of the Chestnut Clan, young one. And if you wish to form a contract with us, you must first pass... the test."
Sora's eyes lit up. "A test? Ooh, is it a riddle? I love riddles! Okay, hit me: What's brown and sticky?"
The Elder Squirrel blinked in confusion. "What? No, it's not a-"
"A stick!" Sora exclaimed, laughing at his own joke. "Get it? Because sticks are brown, and they're sticky! ...No? Tough crowd."
The Elder Squirrel sighed deeply, a sound that seemed to convey millennia of exhaustion. "The test, young one, is simple. You must avoid getting paint on you for the next three hours."
Sora's grin widened. "That's it? Piece of cake! I once avoided Iruka-sensei for a whole day after replacing all his clothes with-"
He never got to finish his sentence. At some unseen signal, buckets of paint in every colour imaginable came hurtling towards him from all directions.
"Oh, it's on!" Sora laughed, his hands already forming seals. "Body Flicker Jutsu!" He did that while using his signature Shapeshifting Jutsu
In a blink, he vanished, reappearing on a nearby branch. The paint splattered harmlessly on the ground where he'd been standing moments before.
"Ha!" he crowed. "You'll have to do better than that to-"
His victory was short-lived. The branch beneath his feet suddenly glowed with an intricate seal, and a paint bomb exploded point-blank.
Sora's eyes widened in shock. "Seals? Do you guys know seals? But... but you don't even have opposable thumbs!"
Using every ounce of his reflexes and a healthy dose of panic, Sora used his shape-shifting jutsu to literally disappear half of his body. The paint passed harmlessly through the space where his right side should have been.
The surrounding squirrels chittered in alarm, their tiny paws covering their eyes at the horrifying sight of a half-vanished human.
Sora couldn't help but chuckle at their reaction. "What's the matter? Never seen a boy cut in half before? I guess you could say I'm... half the man I used to be!"
Seizing the moment of confusion, Sora activated his transformation jutsu, turning himself into a perfect replica of one of the smaller squirrels. He scampered into the crowd, using a subtle genjutsu to convince the others that he'd always been part of the group.
For the next half hour, chaos reigned in the forest. Squirrels darted to and fro, hurling paint with reckless abandon. Sora, in his squirrel disguise, found himself caught up in the madness.
"Get the human!" squeaked one nearby squirrel, waving a tiny paintbrush like a sword.
"Which one is the human?" another asked, looking around in confusion.
"I think it's that one!" a third declared, pointing at a random squirrel who promptly fainted in terror.
Sora caught up in the moment, and couldn't resist joining in. "Yeah, get him!" he squeaked in his best squirrel voice. "He went that way! No, that way! Maybe he turned invisible!"
As the confusion mounted, the Elder Squirrel watched from his perch, a mixture of amusement and exasperation on his furry face. "Perhaps," he mused to himself, "we've finally found a human as chaotic as we are."
Just as Sora was really getting into his role, suggesting increasingly absurd places the "human" might be hiding ("Maybe he shrunk himself and is hiding in an acorn!"), the squirrels seemed to come to a unanimous decision.
"If we can't find the human," one particularly paint-splattered squirrel declared, "then we'll paint EVERYTHING!"
Before Sora could process what that meant, the squirrels began launching themselves into the air, creating a living rain of paint-covered fur. It was as beautiful as it was ridiculous – a rainbow-hued storm of bushy tails and tiny screams of "For the acorns!"
"Oh, nuts," Sora muttered, realizing he was about to be caught in the world's most colourful downpour. With no time to think, he did the only thing he could – he dug.
Using his earth-style jutsu, Sora burrowed into the ground faster than any real squirrel could have managed. He congratulated himself on his quick thinking – until he realized the squirrels had thought ahead.
The underground was riddled with paint bombs, their seals glowing ominously in the darkness.
"Okay," Sora admitted to himself as he frantically dodged and weaved through the subterranean minefield, "I'm starting to think these squirrels might actually be evil geniuses."
After what felt like hours of underground acrobatics (but was probably closer to five very stressful minutes), Sora finally found a safe spot to surface. He cautiously poked his head out of the ground, looked around, and then promptly wished he hadn't.
He had emerged in what could only be described as a squirrel disco. Dozens of larger squirrels were getting down to some serious nut funk, their little paws waving in the air like they just didn't care. A massive acorn-shaped disco ball spun overhead, casting dappled light across the forest floor.
"Well," Sora said, pulling himself fully out of the ground, "this is unexpected. But I guess even homicidal paint-wielding squirrels need to unwind sometimes."
No sooner had he gotten to his feet than Sora felt a strange compulsion come over him. His feet began to move of their own accord, and before he knew it, he was right in the middle of the dance floor, busting moves he didn't even know he had.
"What the - I can't stop dancing!" he exclaimed, his body popping and locking with surprising skill. "Is this some kind of jutsu?"
A nearby squirrel, wearing what appeared to be a tiny sequined vest, nodded sagely. "The Groove Genjutsu," it explained, doing an impressive backflip. "No one can resist the call of the disco!"
Sora's mind raced as he continued to dance. This was clearly another test, but how could he avoid paint while being forced to dance? And more importantly, how was he pulling off these sweet moves?
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
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(300B4, Guys Give me your Powerstones, We are very close to the Top 20)
As if in answer to his unspoken question, the paint-covered young squirrels from earlier burst onto the scene, armed with what looked suspiciously like super soakers filled with paint.
"There he is!" one of them squeaked, pointing a tiny paw at Sora. "Get him!"
What followed was perhaps the most bizarre hour of Sora's young life – and considering his usual antics, that was saying something. He danced and dodged, shimmied and sidestepped, all while a relentless barrage of paint sprayed around him.
The adult squirrels, rather than helping, seemed to treat the whole thing as prime entertainment. They cheered and placed bets (mostly in acorns) on whether Sora would survive the onslaught.
"Look at those moves!" one particularly enthusiastic squirrel commentator squeaked. "I haven't seen footwork like that since the Great Nut Heist of '87!"
Despite the absurdity of the situation, Sora found himself grinning. This was, without a doubt, the most fun he'd had in ages. As he pulled off a particularly impressive series of backflips to avoid a paint grenade, he couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, he'd found his spirit animals.
Finally, after what felt like hours of dance-dodging (and some truly impressive moves that would have made even Might Guy jealous), Sora managed to break free of the disco's hold. He burst out of the clearing, paint-free but thoroughly exhausted.
"Okay," he panted, leaning against a tree. "I think I've had enough dancing for one day. Or maybe one lifetime."
Just as he was catching his breath, Sora's nose caught a whiff of something tantalizingly sweet. Following the scent, he soon found himself standing at the edge of what appeared to be a swimming pool. But instead of water, it was filled with...
"Is that... orange juice?" Sora gasped, his eyes widening in disbelief.
Indeed, the pool was filled to the brim with glistening, pulp-free orange juice. The sweet citrusy aroma wafted through the air, making Sora's mouth water.
"Well," he mused, eyeing the juice pool warily, "on one hand, this is clearly a trap. On the other hand... I am pretty thirsty after all that dancing."
Making a split-second decision (which, let's be honest, was how Sora made most of his decisions), he reached into his ever-present bracers and pulled out... a comically oversized straw.
Don't ask why he had a giant straw in his bracers. Sora believed in always being prepared, especially for impromptu juice-drinking opportunities.
With a gleeful "Cannonball!" Sora leapt into the air, straw at the ready. He landed at the pool's edge, immediately plunging his straw into the orange depths and taking a long, satisfying slurp.
"Oh. My. Gosh," Sora moaned in ecstasy. "This is the best orange juice I've ever tasted! It's like a citrus explosion in my mouth!"
As he continued to drink, Sora kept a wary eye out for any paint-wielding squirrels. But surprisingly, none appeared. Perhaps they respected the sanctity of the juice pool. Or maybe they were just busy cleaning up the disco.
After a few minutes of uninterrupted juice bliss, Sora reluctantly pulled himself away from the pool. "As much as I'd love to stay here forever," he sighed, patting his slightly bulging stomach, "I should probably get back to the test."
As he made his way back into the forest, Sora noticed something he'd overlooked before. It wasn't just squirrels inhabiting this strange realm. Here and there, he caught glimpses of other animals – raccoons wearing tiny bandit masks, parrots with an alarming array of noisemakers, and was that a skunk mixing something in a suspicious-looking cauldron?
"What is this place?" Sora wondered aloud. "Prank Land? The Forest of Eternal Shenanigans?"
Before he could ponder further, a loud gong rang out through the forest. The Elder Squirrel appeared before Sora in a puff of acorn-scented smoke.
"Congratulations, young one," the Elder said, his tone a mixture of impressed and mildly annoyed. "You have survived the three-hour test without a single drop of paint touching you."
Sora pumped his fist in victory. "Yes! I knew all those years of avoiding Iruka-sensei's chalk throws would pay off someday!"
The Elder Squirrel produced a large scroll from... somewhere (Sora decided not to question squirrel storage techniques) and unrolled it. "This is the contract for the Prankster's Paradise – the realm you now stand in. By signing this, you will gain the ability to summon creatures from this land to aid you in your... endeavours."
Sora's eyes lit up like it was his birthday, Christmas, and Prank Appreciation Day all rolled into one. "You mean I get to summon an army of prankster animals? This is the best day ever!"
With more enthusiasm than the Elder Squirrel had seen in centuries, Sora bit his thumb and signed the contract in blood. As soon as he finished, there was a flash of light and the contract vanished.
"The pact is sealed," the Elder intoned solemnly. Then, dropping the serious act, he added, "Now, let's party!"
Suddenly, the forest erupted into celebration. Squirrels, raccoons, parrots, and all manner of animals poured out from every nook and cranny. A band of raccoons struck up a lively tune, while parrots flew overhead, creating a dazzling light show with their colourful plumage.
Sora found himself swept up in a whirlwind of introductions and congratulations. A group of young squirrels, the same ones who had been trying to paint him earlier, approached sheepishly.
"We're sorry we tried to turn you into a rainbow," one of them squeaked. "But you've got to admit, it would have been pretty funny."
Sora grinned and patted the little squirrel on the head. "No hard feelings! In fact, I'm taking notes for future pranks. That paint bomb seal? Pure genius!"
The young squirrels beamed with pride, and soon Sora was engaged in an animated discussion about prank techniques and theories. He was particularly interested in how they managed to create seals without opposable thumbs.
As the party continued, Sora mingled with the various inhabitants of Prankster's Paradise. He traded joke ideas with a group of hyenas, learned some impressive sleight-of-hand tricks from a troop of monkeys, and even had a lengthy debate with a wise old owl about the ethical implications of whoopee cushions.
One encounter, in particular, stood out. A raccoon wearing a tiny lab coat and goggles approached Sora, pushing a cart full of bubbling vials.
"Greetings, new summoner!" the raccoon said, adjusting its goggles. "I'm Dr. Whiskers, chief alchemist of Prankster's Paradise. Interested in some of my latest concoctions?"
Sora leaned in, examining the colourful liquids with interest. "What do they do?"
Dr. Whiskers grinned, showing a mouthful of surprisingly shiny teeth. "Oh, all sorts of things! This one turns anything it touches invisible for an hour. This green one makes plants grow at an alarming rate - perfect for instant jungle pranks. And this sparkly purple one? It makes people speak in rhymes for a day!"
Sora's eyes widened with each description, his mind already whirling with possibilities. "Dr. Whiskers, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
As Sora chatted with the eccentric raccoon scientist, a commotion near the juice pool caught his attention. A group of parrots were engaged in what appeared to be an aerial acrobatics show, diving and swooping in intricate patterns.
"Ah, the Feathered Pranksters," Dr. Whiskers explained, noticing Sora's interest. "They're our aerial division. Excellent for long-distance pranks and message delivery."
Sora watched in awe as the parrots performed a perfect formation, spelling out "WELCOME SORA" in the sky with trails of glitter.
"That's amazing!" Sora exclaimed. "How do they do that?"
A nearby parrot, its feathers a dazzling array of neon colours, landed on Sora's shoulder. "Years of practice, darling," it squawked in a voice reminiscent of a flamboyant stage actor. "I'm Pizzazz, leader of the Feathered Pranksters. We specialize in aerial distractions, glitter bombs, and fabulous entrances."
Sora grinned, already imagining the possibilities. "Oh, we are going to have so much fun together."
As the party continued, Sora found himself in the middle of a clearing where a group of skunks were giving a demonstration. They wore tiny wizard hats and held what appeared to be wands made from twigs.
"Behold!" announced the lead skunk, waving his wand dramatically. "The latest in olfactory illusions!"
With a puff of sweet-smelling smoke, the clearing was suddenly filled with the aroma of freshly baked cookies. Another wave of the wand, and it changed to the scent of a spring meadow.
"Scent-sational!" Sora laughed, thoroughly impressed. "I never thought I'd see the day when skunks made things smell better!"
The skunk magician bowed with a flourish. "We're full of surprises, kid. Stick with us, and you'll never look at a nose the same way again."
As the night wore on, Sora found himself drawn into more and more fascinating conversations and demonstrations. He learned the art of silent movement from a group of ninja cats, discussed the finer points of mud-pit traps with a wise old boar, and even got a crash course in disguise techniques from a family of chameleons.
But perhaps the most intriguing encounter came near the end of the night. As the party was winding down, Sora noticed a small, unassuming door set into the trunk of a massive oak tree. Curiosity piqued, he approached it.
"Ah, I see you've found the Door of A Thousand Pranks," the Elder Squirrel said, appearing suddenly at Sora's side.
Sora jumped slightly, still not used to the Elder's stealthy appearance. "The Door of A Thousand Pranks? What's behind it?"
The Elder's eyes twinkled mischievously. "It's a portal, young one. Each time it's opened, it leads to a different location in your world - always to a place where a good prank is needed."
Sora's jaw dropped. "You mean I could open this door and end up anywhere? Like, say, the Hokage's office? Or the ANBU headquarters?"
"Precisely," the Elder nodded. "But use it wisely. Great power comes with great responsibility... to pull off truly legendary pranks."
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
Like it ? Add to library!
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