Naruto: The New Sealmaster

The trio didn't get very far though. Just 30 metres in and they encountered four massive bears. At first they tried outrunning them, since they didn't want to bother with them, but soon it was clear they wouldn't get any rest with the bears around so Dai gave their leader a hefty punch to the skull and Kazuto threw a large fireball at the rest. The bears were scared off and seemingly went to another target instead. Team Aoshi didn't care, so they just kept going forward. They got to a tree taller than the rest and decided to sit on some of the branches while Aoshi checked their surroundings.

He had gotten a lot better at sensing but when he wanted to check large areas he still had to be still and slowly expand the area he scanned. "Give me a minute guys." They both nodded and relaxed in silence. Since Aoshi hadn't sensed anything yet, they knew it was safe to relax a little.

He extended his range more and more and eventually he found some people on either side of them. On one side were some people having trouble with bugs it looked like, might be a good option to go for them but then he sensed the other side. It seems the bears attacked the team he assumed was his brother's team, unless they've moved a lot. It was clear their team had a lot of troubles, but what concerned him most was that he suddenly felt a lot of chakra be pulled from one of their members into the other two. He knew very few techniques which could accomplish this and he remembered the red hair he saw in that group. Aoshi hoped he was wrong, but decided to check it out. Just in case.

"Guys! We're going to keep hunting bears apparently." They looked confused but accepted what he said without question as they ran in that direction. After just a short run, they sat in the tallest tree to watch what happened to the team in front of them.

It was a weak team, that's for sure. Aoi apparently couldn't teach at all, since the two male members could barely handle one of the bears, much less all four. They had killed the smallest bear but that seemingly had only made the other bears angrier. They went over to the third member and what Aoshi was afraid of, was true. The small red-haired girl in the team was an Uzumaki with a certain bloodline he knew used to be in his own clan as well. There was a way to use her chakra and life force to heal others and replenish their chakra reserves. The boys in her team used the cruellest method though, they bit her. Aoshi couldn't see how many marks there were on her arms. Considering this was the second time those two boys had bitten her within minutes here, he didn't want to imagine how many times that small girl had been abused like this.

On one hand, he had an instinctual hate for Uzumakis. On the other hand..there were a lot of things. His hate had lessened a lot since he stopped listening to his father's crazed ramblings. Konoha was supposed to protect every Uzumaki. But most of all, he couldn't imagine a version of himself that would leave a young girl in need like that. He had to save her somehow, not from the bears, but from her village. Before he could jump in and intervene though, the two males decided to throw what looked like meat in front of the girl and run away as fast as they could.

"You two beat up the boys. I'll handle the bears and the girl. Get their scroll if you can." Dai and Kazuto looked absolutely furious at what they had just seen and Aoshi had no doubt they would take it out on the Kusa kids. But he had his own worries. He jumped down, performed a front flip, and just before his leg hit the head of the larger bear he used his own technique to propel the foot as fast as possible. His kick cracked its skull and it flew down lifeless. The other two bears looked at him with rage as he used a simple genjutsu to make them fall asleep.

Then he spotted the girl. She was curled up against the tree but as she heard that the growling stopped, she slowly looked up only to meet the eyes of Aoshi. Red eyes met purple and for a moment she was speechless, until one word slipped through with a confused light voice. "Sensei..?"

Aoshi sighed and walked over to her. He reached out a hand to help her up. "No, that's a different guy. I'd prefer it if you didn't mention him around me. I'm Rokushō Aoshi, at your service." That was when her surprise and confusion let up. She looked up at Aoshi with stars in her eyes. He missed this since he was wiping blood off his clothes but this time she took his offered hand with a mighty blush.

She was very weak and could barely stand on her own so he offered her his shoulder to lean on. "If you can't walk, I might have to carry you. We have to get you away from those two." Although she was blushing as she leaned heavily on him, she was also confused. The girl looked over at the bears. "They don't seem to be much trouble."

Aoshi nodded. "I'm not talking about the bears. Your so-called 'teammates' are currently being hunted down by mine. I expect they won't have a great time." She blinked several times and looked him in the eye, wondering what he was planning on doing.

He nodded at her. "You're coming with me."

Memories flashed through her mind. Another green haired man had tricked her and her mother into Kusa to start with and then claimed them as his gift to the village. But before she could give him a weary look, she saw his determined one. "I won't let you get harmed like that. To abuse your bloodline like that is despicable, I won't let that ever happen again. You hear me?"

She nodded at his words and they even instilled a sense of calmness inside her. He spoke with a kind of certainty and sincerity she hadn't ever heard before and it made her believe every word he spoke. Her starry eyes returned and when Dai and Kazuto returned she really didn't notice at all. Her eyes remained fixed on Aoshi at this point.

"How did it go?" Aoshi asked his team. Dai shook his head and Kazuto expanded. "We beat them up and tied them to a tree but we couldn't find a scroll on them. Seems like they must have dropped it somewhere." That snapped the girl out of her stupor. Her eyes lit up and a small smile spread over her face. "I have it!"

All eyes were on her as she took out an earth scroll from her pocket and gave it to Aoshi. "Did you need an Earth scroll?" She sounded hopeful, like she wished to please him somehow.

A wide grin spread on his face and he accepted the scroll. "Perfect. Now we can head for the centre straight away!"

Kazuto raised an eyebrow and looked from his teammate, to the unknown red-haired kunoichi over and over again.

Aoshi sighed but nodded. "Yes, she is coming with us. I'll carry her, don't worry." And so he bent down to let her get onto his back, which she did with a face colour which matched her hair. 

Then they were off. It would take a while to get to the centre, but hopefully they could avoid tough enemies along the way. Dai said a few words for once. "Maybe most teams are still gathering knowledge about the area before making their move. It seems unlikely that many have gotten far into the forest."

He made a good point, but Aoshi kept his senses on high alert. He wouldn't feel anything much in advance but hopefully that little bit could make a difference.

About half an hour into their trek to the middle, fear trickled through Aoshi's body. He stopped abruptly, almost dropping the girl as he did so, and his teammates stopped on the tree ahead of him.

He could feel cold sweat all over his body from the killing intent and the twisted large amount of chakra he sensed. The creepy Kusa 'genin' was nearby. He signalled to the others that they had to hide but then he heard that voice. It sent shivers down his spine with how sinister yet playful it was.

"Oh Aoshi-kun. I've heard so much about you, let's play a little before I go find my main course!"

What he saw when he turned around wasn't a sight he'd forget in a while. The Kuna-nin's neck had extended way too far this time. The most worrying part though, was the snake she was riding. It must have been 50 metres long and way too thick for its own good. Its jaw was absolutely massive and could swallow all of them whole without any issue whatsoever.

Aoshi let down the girl on the ground behind him and then looked defiantly at the unknown opponent.

"Dai, Kazuto. Take the girl and run as fast as you possibly can."

They hesitated but the second he sent them a serious glare, they started running while holding onto the girl. The creep wasn't going to let that happen though. Aoshi could hear a chuckle and then a loud slam.

Another snake had shown up behind them and attacked his friends. Dai was fine since he managed to turn his body into steel but the other two struggled to their feet about a hundred metres away. Aoshi couldn't remain distracted though as his enemy moved in for the strike.

He saw the snake's jaw open wide to swallow him whole and he thought that might just be the solution. In an instant, he threw a couple of kunai at the enemy on top, and then readied himself for his plan. The moment the snake got close enough, he propelled himself inside it perfectly so that none of the teeth touched him even slightly and once inside he unleashed his technique from both hands and both feet.

"Wind Style: Spinning Trampette!"

Instead of using the force to propel himself, he used it to pierce the enormous snake he was currently inside from four locations. A second later it poofed into smoke and disappeared. Aoshi tried running towards his friends but the next instant, he found himself held up by the neck.

"Tut, tut, tut. It's truly a shame little Manny managed to bite you. You could have made for an excellent subject."

It was only then that Aoshi noticed that he at some point had gotten bitten by the smallest little snake. It must have been only about 10 cm long and purple in colour, but he felt its toxin immediately. His entire body started shutting down, part by part, muscle by muscle. The Kusa-nin threw him into a nearby tree.

"Since you're no use to me now, I might as well finish you off.."