The Forest of Death didn't grant reprieves; it merely paused to savor the next hunt. Kaito – Shade, the Level 3 Rogue Nomad bearing the bleeding wound of an Ancient Centipede and the phantom ache of a shattered scroll – stumbled through the pre-dawn gloom. Every step sent jolts of fiery agony through his ribs where the venom still simmered (<< HP: 61/100 >> | << Chitin Venom (Mild) >>). His Namikaze perception, usually a shield, felt like sandpaper on his raw nerves, amplifying every rustle, every drip, every distant screech into a potential death knell.
'Move. Keep moving. Stop and you die.' The mantra pounded in sync with his throbbing wound. 'The hollow's compromised. Scavengers will come. Bigger things… drawn by the blood.' He clutched his makeshift bandage, the cloth already stained dark. The charred fragments of Hayate's map felt like lead in his pouch. 'Mount Myoboku… lost. Direction lost. Hope… fading.'
He relied on instinct and the faint, terrifying pull of the Senju bloodline's Nature Chakra Affinity. It wasn't a compass, more like a subtle tug towards areas where the forest felt… older, denser, the chakra in the air thicker, wilder. 'Follow the life. Follow the power. Hope it leads up.' It was a desperate gamble.
Hours bled into a haze of pain and hyper-vigilance. He drank sparingly from his waterskin, chewed a bitter chanterelle (<< Stamina +2 >>), and pushed on. The Centipede's Bane title seemed to work – smaller insects scuttled away, and a giant, iridescent beetle he glimpsed veered off sharply. But it did nothing for the pair of glowing crimson eyes that tracked him from a high branch for nearly a mile before vanishing.
'Level up didn't fix this,' he thought grimly, checking his status again. Level 3 felt pitifully inadequate. He'd dumped points into VIT (10) and CC (8), seeking endurance and desperately needed control after the spatial disaster. His new skill pulsed in his interface:
<< Chakra Thread (Rank F) >>
*Manipulate a thin strand of raw chakra. Basic binding, sensing, or manipulation at close range (1m). Cost: 1 Chakra/sec. >>
'A spider's silk. Useless against chitin… or is it?' An idea sparked, fueled by desperation and his Fuinjutsu Affinity. 'Not a weapon… a trigger? A tripwire?'
He found his test subject sooner than expected. A narrow ravine blocked his path, its bottom lost in shadow and thick, thorny vines. The only way across was a treacherous-looking natural bridge of moss-slick stone. And coiled in the center, basking in a rare shaft of sunlight piercing the canopy, was a serpent.
Not ancient, but formidable. Thick as his arm, scales the color of dried blood, a triangular head lifted lazily as he approached. Its ID flickered: << Forest Viper - Level 4 >>. Venom dripped from its fangs. 'Great. More poison.'
'Can't fight it on that bridge. Can't go around. Ravine's too deep.' His eyes scanned the bridge structure. His Namikaze perception dissected it: stress points, cracks, the slick moss pattern. His Fuinjutsu comprehension hummed, seeing potential energy pathways, weaknesses in the stone's cohesion. 'Not strong enough to break it… but maybe…'
He focused. Chakra Thread (Rank F). A thin, almost invisible strand of pale blue energy, no thicker than fishing line, flickered from his fingertip. It felt clumsy, alien, like trying to write with his toes. He poured focus, guided by his CC 8, aiming not for the snake, but for a specific hairline fissure near the base of the stone bridge on his side.
'Not to bind. Not to sense. To… vibrate.' He recalled the unstable spatial frequency he'd perceived in Hayate's scroll before its demise. He couldn't replicate that, but he could mimic the principle on a micro-scale. He poured a tiny, rapid pulse of chakra down the thread, directing it into the fissure, willing it to resonate with the stone's inherent weakness. << Chakra: 49/50 >>
HUM.
A low, almost inaudible vibration thrummed through the stone. Pebbles skittered. The viper's head snapped up, tongue flicking rapidly, sensing the disturbance but not comprehending the source. It coiled tighter, defensive.
Kaito intensified the pulse, focusing his will through the thread. 'Resonate! Shake! Break!*'
CRACK!
A small section of rock near the fissure, already weakened, sheared off with a sharp report. It wasn't much – a chunk the size of his fist – but it tumbled down, bouncing off the bridge right beside the viper.
The serpent, startled and now perceiving the unstable ground as a direct threat, struck instinctively – not at Kaito, but at the crumbling edge near it. Its heavy body slammed down, trying to secure purchase on the now-vibrating stone.
CRUNCH.
The combined weight and impact on the already stressed point was the final straw. A larger section of the bridge edge, directly under the viper, gave way with a groan. The snake hissed in panic as it scrabbled, scales scraping on stone, but gravity won. It plummeted into the thorny depths of the ravine with a fading hiss and a crash of vegetation.
<< Forest Viper (Level 4) Evaded! >>
<< EXP Gained! >>
<< Skill Progression: Chakra Thread (Rank F) >>
<< New Understanding: Environmental Fuinjutsu (Basic) >>
Kaito sagged, sweat stinging his eyes, the chakra thread dissipating. 'It worked. Barely. Not combat… sabotage. Using the environment.' He eyed the damaged but still traversable bridge warily. 'Now to cross before the rest falls.' He moved with agonizing slowness, testing each foothold, his perception hyper-focused on the stone's integrity. Every creak was a potential death sentence. He made it, collapsing on the far side as another wave of venom-induced nausea washed over him. << HP: 59/100 >> 'Venom's persistent. Need real healing.'
The forest grew denser, the trees older and more massive. The air hummed with tangible energy. Chakra Sense showed vibrant currents swirling around ancient roots and pooling in clearings. The Nature Chakra Affinity pull grew stronger, leading him upwards along increasingly steep, rocky terrain. Hope warred with exhaustion.
Then, he heard it. Not a predator. Not the wind.
Croak.
Deep, resonant, and impossibly close. Kaito froze, scanning the dense ferns beside the path. His perception caught the subtle displacement of leaves. His Chakra Sense registered a compact, powerful signature – not hostile, but… watchful. Ancient.
A toad the size of a large dog sat on a moss-covered boulder. Its skin was a mottled green and brown, perfect camouflage, but its eyes… huge, intelligent, and a luminous gold, fixed on him with unnerving focus. It didn't blink.
'A summon? Here? So close?' Kaito's heart hammered. This wasn't a random forest creature. This felt… deliberate.
<< ??? - Toad Scout (Myoboku) - Level ?? >> flickered above it briefly before dissolving into question marks.
The toad tilted its massive head, its throat pouch inflating slightly. It didn't speak, not with words. Instead, an image flashed in Kaito's mind, projected with startling clarity: a towering mountain peak wreathed in mist, bathed in the golden light of dawn. Mount Myoboku. Then, the image shifted, focusing on a specific, narrow path winding up the sheer rock face – a path not marked on Hayate's ruined map. A path that looked… possible.
The image vanished as quickly as it came. The toad gave another deep Croak, then simply… vanished. Not in a puff of smoke, but by melting backwards into the ferns with impossible silence and speed, leaving no trace.
'A guide? A test? Did Jiraiya send it? Or the mountain itself?' Kaito stared at the spot where the toad had been, the phantom image of the path seared into his mind. The direction was clear now. The Senju bloodline's affinity thrummed in agreement. 'Myoboku acknowledges me. Or at least… one of its scouts does.'
The path the toad showed was brutal. Less a path, more a vertical obstacle course of jagged rock faces, crumbling handholds, and treacherous, moss-covered slopes. His injured side screamed with every pull, every scrape. His stamina plummeted (<< Stamina: 30/80 >>). He used Chakra Thread constantly, not for sabotage now, but for survival – creating fleeting handholds on smooth rock, testing the stability of ledges before committing his weight, even briefly binding loose stones to prevent them from tumbling down on him. << Chakra: 40/50 >> 'Draining… but necessary.'
<< Skill Progression: Chakra Thread (Rank F) >> notifications flashed repeatedly. The skill was becoming more responsive, the thread slightly thicker, its range pushing towards 1.5 meters. He was learning through desperate necessity.
Near dusk, clinging to a sheer face hundreds of feet above the forest canopy, the venom's burn reached a crescendo. Spots danced before his eyes. << HP: 52/100 >> 'Too low… too weak…' He fumbled, his boot slipping on wet moss. He scrabbled frantically, his Chakra Thread lashing out instinctively, anchoring to a tough root protruding from a crack just above him. It held, barely, saving him from a fatal fall, but the jolt sent fresh agony through his ribs. He hung there, gasping, the wind whipping at him, the vast expanse of the Forest of Death spread out below like a dark, hungry sea.
'Can't… stop… Hana…' The thought was a fading ember. He reached deep, beyond the pain, beyond the fear, touching the sliver of Nature Chakra Affinity within his locked bloodline. He didn't try to control it; he simply opened himself to it, a desperate plea to the mountain itself.
The response wasn't power. It was… calm. A wave of cool, green-tinged energy, subtle but pervasive, washed over him from the living rock he clung to. It didn't heal the wound, but it soothed the venom's fiery burn, clearing his head slightly and granting a sliver of renewed strength. << Chitin Venom (Mild) Effect Reduced! Stamina Regeneration Penalty Removed! >>
'The mountain… provides?' He hauled himself up onto a narrow ledge, collapsing, shivering, but alive. He looked up. The path continued, steeper than ever, vanishing into the mist-shrouded heights. But the air here tasted different – cleaner, sharper, charged with an energy that made his skin tingle and his locked Senju bloodline hum with dormant potential. Far, far above, hidden by clouds, lay Mount Myoboku.
He'd found the path of stone. The trial of the toad had begun. And somewhere in the mist above, a Sage waited. Kaito Ryusaki, battered and bleeding, but unbroken, pressed his forehead against the cool, living rock and whispered his sister's name into the wind. Then, he began to climb again. The hardest steps were still ahead.