Chapter 20: The Looming Crisis
．．．．．
on the road towards Apis house...
"so did you find them Eric?" after Eric traveled quite far, someone with marine uniform addresed him from the roadside.
Eric clicked his tongue in displeasure, he didn't answered the marine, he just passed him by and continue to walk.
"ERIC! stop right there!" yelled the marine, then he continued, "admiral Nelson hired you! so you need to listen to our order!"
Eric paused on his track, he turned his head around and glared at the marine menacingly. the marine glared back without fear.
"did you find out where the little girl is?! answer me!" the marine said arrogantly. Eric still kept his silent, he spat on the ground and turned around without carring the marine any further.
seeing his attitude, the marine took out his ko-denden mushi, the smaller version of a regular denden mushi, he dialed his superior on the 3rd battleship mooring not far from the Warship Island coastline.
as for why they were here, the answers were quite complicated, after admiral Nelson of 8th branch marine base gave them a pursuit order, 1st, 2nd and 3rd battleship broke out from the connecting Crane's Wing Formation a couple days before.
as 3 ships sailed in pursuit, suddenly a storm engulfed all of the ships, the storms raging made their journey almost impossible! when the strorm finaly passed, only the 3rd battleship remained with tattered body, the 2 other battleships unfortunately succumbed into the might of mother nature.
the 3rd battleship captain ordered his men to continue the pursuit only to find out they had no direction to go, that was the moment when the crew found the stranded Eric on a piece of wood in the middle of the sea.
thinking Eric was one of their allies, they saved him and demanding his cooperation regarding the little girl whereabouts. facing with no choice, Eric told them about Warship Island.
Eric had no choice, he doesn't have any means of transportation at the time, so he lead the 3rd battleship towards the Warship Island. Eric thought were simple, even if Nelson coming, he believed he could get to the girl first before the marine and dig out any secret the girl has with any means necessary.
the marine on the roadside finished reporting Eric and his suspicious behavior, when he saw Eric nonchalant back, he couldn't help but snorted, "filthy mercenary, if it wasn't for admiral Nelson mercy, how could an okama like you had the chance?!"
the marine turned around to head back towards the ship only failed to noticed Eric brandishing his claw several distance away from him.
"kama kama no kamaitachi!" eric exclaimed softly as he swung his long claw down!
"huh?" noticing something coming from behind, the marine looked back only to see a semi transparent blade made of wind approached him in an instant!
'Slaaash...!'
'drip, drip, drip..."
the blood dripping out of his back caused by the wound which suddenly appeared on it! the poor man staggered as he still in disbelief of what Eric had done to him.
'thud!'
the marine lifeless body fell down with a thud, Eric glanced at him in disdain and continue his travel while he mumbled peevedly, "okama huh? bastard!"
〜〜〜〜〜
8th Branch Marine Base...
"thats the report admiral..." said one officer towards the gluton Admiral Nelson.
Nelson still enjoying his meal without care, in the middle of his meal, he pointed forward,
"nom* nom*, set course! crunch* nom* the destination, nom* Warship Island!!!" he exclaimed loudly.
"AYE! AYE SIR!" answered the marines inside his quarter.
and so the huge fleet of floating 8th branch marine base moved towards the Warship Island.
〜〜〜〜〜
"sensei where are you going?" apis asked Rei while she held a ninja scroll.
"i'm going for a while, just follow the scroll's instruction." replied Rei before vanishing from the cave which grandpa Ryu lived in.
after Apis kneaded her chakra, Rei suggested her to train in grandpa Ryu's cave, Rei could feel the nature chakra over here was more abundant than any other place. even though Apis couldn't absorb nature's chakra, the environments itself could help Apis tremendously when she kneaded her chakra.
as for the scroll Rei mentioned before, right after the last system notification came, he got x2 master packs and he got 2 things after opening it. the first one is basic taijutsu movements set for novice ninja, it could help ninja initiative train their body, and the second one was chakra gathering scroll which literary contained the technique for kneading chakra more efficiently.
the later scroll gave Rei a tremendous help for Apis training. after all, Rei has the body which automatically absorbs chakra from his surrounding and he doesn't need any technique to help him knead his own chakra. because of it he didn't know any chakra gathering technique, and also because the system never gave him such technique before.
as for the x1 disciple pack he got when accepting Apis as his diciple? it was only standard black uniform usualy used by ninja, it was useless as Rei didn't want Apis to become a full fledged ninja.
after Rei vanished, Apis began to read the scrolls earnestly while accompanied by the old dragon which has huge curiosity towards the scrolls.
Rei traveled quickly towards the island shore, he would occasionally jumping between trees and rock, until 5 minutes later he finaly arrived on the coral reef not far from seaside village, he looked towards the bustling village, after carefully observed that nothing strange happened, he undressed while only keeping his pants on.
Rei took a deep breath as he sees straight towards the sea under the reef. before he jumped down, he first opened the system to find out how Apis were doing,
"system, open disciple live moments." he said quietly.
「Ding!
Disciple : Apis
Status : Healthy
Live Moments : (practicing chakra kneading technique) 」
seeing Apis were doing just fine, Rei turned his focus back towards the seawater below.
"here we go..." he murmured and jumped down towards the seawater.
'Splaash'
the reason Rei dived into the ocean were simply because curiosity, after teaching Apis, Rei found himself with nothing better to do, so he simply decided to find out about the Lost Island whereabouts.
for several times he resurfaces for air and dived back down into the depths, until Rei finaly found a strange shape of rock formation below, when he approached, Rei couldn't help but surprised as the rock shape was resembled those of dragon!
underwater, he observed the rock and touched it only to find out on how smooth the rock felt.
'is this the calcified dragon? the dragonite?' Rei thought about the 'Immortal Elixir' ingredient was the dragon bone or 'dragonite' or so it was called.
Rei continued his underwater exploration and he noticed his surrounding were filled with lots and lots of rocks with dragon-like shape.
after he resurface for air and dived down once again, he saw a peculiar circle flat ground not far from his current spot. he approached the flat ground and noticed it were surrounded by the dragon rocks as if they were having a pilgrimage towards it.
when Rei arrived, he was amazed by what he saw! on the flat ground there was an old circular mural painting rested atop of the seabed. a huge mural depicting about the Lost Island and the dragon painted on it in circular manner.
the most amazing thing about it was, how could a mural painting withstood the passing time and the corrosive seawater around it for such a long time?
Rei didn't need to understand what was written on it, as the painting itself shows him a story, a story about the dragon race called 'Millenium Dragon'.
the Millenium Dragon were called such not because they could live for thousand year, it was called that way because they are a migratory race and would be nesting only for once in a thousand year, and the place where they would nest was in Lost island, which depicted by the mural will resurfaces once in thousand year, and the cycles would repeat until the end of time.
while Rei having a blast exploring the sea, Apis returned home at sunset, she slumped on the table while Bokuden served her a tablefull of food.
seeing the foods, Apis began eating voraciously as if she hadn't eat anything for years, Bokuden were astonished by how much Apis ate, however as a loving grandfather there were no better joy than seeing his granddaughter eating so well.
Apis herself noticed how much she was eating, however she simply couldn't stop as after a day of training she felt so starving! Apis still didn't knew that in fact, due to her practicing chakra, it increase her appetite exponentially!
the simplest explanation was, due to how the chakra was created. it was using inner and physical energies, the physical energy especially used body cells to produce the energy, so it was no surprise if Apis need to increase her callory intake from food.
and thats why, the ninjas in Naruto series eat so much despite having slender figure.
"where is Rei, Apis?" asked Bokuden.
"sensei went somewhere this afternoon, i don't know." Apis answered while eating.
"Apis, are you sure you wants to learn this 'nintsuz' thing?" it was normal for Bokuden to have such concern, after all he only wants the best for her granddaughter wellbeing.
"its okay grandpa, Sensei said that i'm talented, and it won't take me long to master it! and its called 'Ninjutsu', grandpa." she said full of pride.
Bokuden smiled and stroke her head gently, after a while, Apis finished her food. she helped Bokuden to do the dishes and washed up until finaly she fell asleep for the night.
〜〜〜〜〜
at dawn, Rei welcoming a new day at the sandy beach on the other side of seaside village, he sees straight at the sunrise filled with joy and gratitude.
Rei was still full of amazements towards the rock formation, it turns out that the calcified dragon under water would emits light albeit dimly at night.
so, Rei spending his time by exploring the surrounding water of Warship Island, he tried to find the boundary where the real Lost Island lays, until he found out how big the Lost Island truly was.
feeling hungry, Rei catched a few seafood from the shore, he lights up the campfire by rubbing two woods together. Rei can't help it, even with his abundance of chakra, he still hasn't got any fire jutsu which he desired at the moment. and also because the ninja suplies doesn't contain any lighter for survival purposes.
thankfully his enhanced physique helped him tremendously, in no times he got the bonfire lights up. if not, he had no choice but to eat the disgusting ninja ration once more.
enjoying his roasted seafood, he saw the sun raising higher and higher. after he finished his meal Rei decided to explore the ruins which happens to be behind him.
walking slowly, Rei witnessed the abandoned building on his surrounding, wild vines creeped out everywhere, he wondered what happened to the village? was the village past related to the Lost Island? after all, the broken ruins has no resemblance at all towards the houses Rei saw at seaside village and the hillside village where Bokuden and Apis resides.
unknown to him, after Apis said her goodbye to Bokuden in the morning, she went towards grandpa Ryu's cave for training.
after only a day of chakra training, Apis was hooked up by her physical improvements brought by it, her 5 senses felt wonderful and her body feels so light she almost think she could fly.
Apis skipped on her way while humming, she didn't notice someone else had followed her since she went out of the village!
"now, now, where are you going little one?." Eric smirked while licking his long claw behind the oblivious Apis.
the innocent little Apis still unaware of the looming crisis she would eventually face!
〜〜〜〜〜
meanwhile at the seaside village...
"VILLAGE CHIEEF!" someone shouted on top of his lung in front of one of the house at seaside village.
seeing no response, the man yelled once more seemed in desperate, "VILLAGE CHIEF! VILLAGE CHIEEF!"
"what are ye shouting about in the morning huh!" the door opened with a fierce muscular old man coming out from the house.
"village chief! there's marine coming!" said the man in trepidation. his face were pale as if seeing a ghost in the morning.
the muscular old man which turned out the seaside village chief, had some questioning expression on his face,
"marines? why are you panicking for? let them be! unless you're criminal." spoke the village chief shrugged off the man's alert.
"they're from the notorious 8th Branch! and they came with full armada, chief!" said the man once again.
hearing the man's word, the old chief paused slightly and fear began to creeped out his wrinkled face.
"are you sure? ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY SURE!" the old chief shaking the man shoulder forcefuly!
the man replied by a nod.
"HIDE THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN QUICKLY BEFORE THEY CAME ASHORE!" the village chief shouted on top of his lung while he ran towards several houses in order to evacuate the residents especialy women and children.
the peaceful village begun panicking while many unwanted guests stepped out from the small boats on the sandy beach.
"gathers everyone in the village, ask them about the little girl! if they don't answer, just kill them!" Nelson voice could be heard coming from the marine officer ko-denden mushi. whom just arrived at the sandy beach of Warship Island.
the marine officer looked at the peaceful seaside village ahead, he smirked and answered Nelsons back,
"affirmative sir."
．．．．．．
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone