In Naruto With Pocket Hunting

[P.O.V–Nawaki]

I'm tired in so many ways.

Dealing with everything that happened in one day was troublesome. But that's not even all of it.

Although I expected it, seeing the Third working so hard and even indirectly bribing me to stay quiet about Danzo's evil deeds, only to claim that he was killed by the same people who tried to kidnap Kushina…

Of course, his argument was valid too. Since Danzo was dead, there was no reason to expose this and diminish the village's prestige. Though, the truth would be revealed to the main clan leaders.

And they all agreed to hide the truth for the village's sake. After all, even though some of the corpses used for experiments belonged to their own people—or rather, precisely because they did—they didn't want it to go public.

Some of them were even declared as having died in war. How lamentable would it be for their families to find out that one of the elders in the high council actually killed them, using them as lab rats?

This could trigger multiple chain reactions, even creating an avenger seeking justice against the village that used their family as lab rats...

For this reason, the Third invoked a secrecy decree with severe punishments.

And this time, the Third seemed far more serious than ever before. It looked like something inside him had changed with Danzo's death.

"Well, whatever~" I murmured, thinking, 'I didn't care what would happen to Danzo. I just wanted him gone.'

That was the plain truth. Tarnishing Danzo's name? Would that change anything for me?

No! It wouldn't. It wouldn't even bring me any sense of relief or satisfaction.

However, being commanded by a leader like Hiruzen didn't make me happy at all. Even though I agreed to keep certain things secret, it wasn't for the Third's sake—there would still be consequences for him later...

For now, he's still necessary. A leadership change while a war is still ongoing—even if it's close to ending—can't lose its leader. At least a few days or weeks are needed, but no more than a month, to address the issue of removing the Third from power.

As sleep overtook me, I began to close my eyes.

--

In the Hokage's office, the Third looked deeply saddened.

He constantly smoked his pipe as his fingers stroked a photo on his desk.

The tears that threatened to spill from his eyes started falling, trickling down his face and dripping onto the photo.

With a trembling voice, the Third murmured, "Why did you have to leave me… DanDan?"

The photo of Danzo, posing for the camera, became visibly clear.

'What the hell!!'

I woke up in a dark, unfamiliar space, terrified and nauseous.

The scene I had witnessed was beyond disturbing…!

'Why did I see something like that?' I thought, 'Was it real? Did I have some sort of vision...? It can't be, right?'

Wanting to shake off that image, I focused on what lay before me.

The shift was expected, so being in this room instead of appearing in an open sky was premeditated.

The best way to describe what stood out in this dark room were the two large rings that reflected windows into two different scenarios. If I didn't know better, I'd think they weren't connected at all but rather belonged to separate dimensions.

In one ring, rabbits were predominant, while in the other, there were animals I'd never seen before on the first map. However, there was also one I'd seen by chance on the first map: a giant lizard.

I don't know about you, but when I see something like this, I want to try to cheat the system.

How?

Simple, really.

I performed hand seals, and soon a clone appeared beside me.

My clone walked toward the second mirror, which now displayed some black-scaled leopards. But the moment my clone did so, some sort of electric current repelled it.

"Ouch, dang it…" Shaking its numb hand, my clone went to the first ring. Same result.

Disappearing, I understood: 'I can't cheat like that...'

A bit disappointing, but oh well. Life goes on.

Approaching the second ring, I placed my hand on it.

When I did so, I wasn't repelled; instead, my mental strength began to connect with the ring, and soon my vision darkened.

It wasn't even a second before I could see again, finding myself in a grassy plain.

If the plain on the first map resembled a mountainside field with grass no taller than knee-high, this region was more like a cornfield. Of course, it'd be ridiculous if it were as tall as a cornfield—I simply wouldn't be able to hunt properly without clearing out the vegetation.

However, it's not good to generalize. For instance, the giant lizards could easily remain visible even if the vegetation were as tall as a cornfield, as could other beasts in this part of the map.

Anyway, I don't want to dwell too much on this. Let's hunt!

Forming a "+" with my fingers, I said, "Multiple Shadow Clones!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang...!"

In an instant, 50 clones were created.

"Go!" I ordered with a wave.

Immediately, the calm grassland began to flatten under the feet of the clones as they ran off in groups of 10 in different directions.

While my clones hurried, I did the opposite—walking slowly, picking up some stones, and leaving my mark on them.

My clones could afford to die, after all, but I couldn't. Well… I could, but I didn't want to. I mean, who would actually want to experience dying, even if not permanently?

Ten minutes later, I received feedback from one of my clones.

'I see, it's as if each beast on this plain has the strength of the boss from the first map...'

But that doesn't make them invincible. It just makes it more troublesome for my clones to defeat them.

With ten marked stones in hand, I jumped into the air.

Over 10 meters above the ground, I hurled one of the stones with considerable force.

"BOOM!"

The strength of my throw caused a loud boom, and the stone disintegrated mid-air.

With a reluctant smile, I grabbed another and threw it weaker this time.

"Whoosh!"

The earlier booming sound didn't happen, but there was still a whistling noise from the throw as it traveled across much of the map in an instant.

Vanishing and reappearing in the air, catching the stone, I surveyed my surroundings and spotted a Black Anaconda. It was enormous, likely dozens of meters long.

Seeming to sense my presence, the front part of its body rose while its forked tongue flicked in the air.