Behind the Waterfall

#10 Stuck

The shinobi standing guard looked at Naruto with suspicious eyes as he walked out of the village. The blonde boy didn't pay them any attention as he walked off into the dense forest in front of him.

"Next stop, nowhere." Naruto announced in his thoughts as he jumped up into the trees, looking for the sun to get his orientation. He had already decided that his best chance for work would be the next bigger village so he knew that he had to travel to the south closer to the border between the land of waterfalls and the land of gras. Once he was sure that he was a good distance away from Taki, he created a shadow clone and sent it off to get a head start on reading a book about sealing he had found in a store the day before. He knew about the easy seals from his training with Kurama, but he needed to grow his knowledge about them a lot, if he really planned on creating a somewhat permanent base.

He watched the trees fly by as he traveled through the world, looking for a place that was easily disguisable.

He found a clearing that would have had enough space, but it was way too close to the main roads, so he disregarded it.

A bit later he saw a small stream with a few caves nearby, although again there was a big road not too far away so he decided against it.

A while later he heard a waterfall. At first he was confused and scared that he had somehow gone in a big circle, but when the trees cleared, it was obvious that this was not the case.

He stood on top of a large cliff, the trees stopped, as the earth dropped about 140 feet down into the grassy steppes of the land of grass. The stream he had been following had pooled into a small lake next to him and was rushing down into an enormous basin. The view was breathtaking as the sun was just beginning to set and had painted the whole area in orange light. Together with the waterfall it was eerily similar to the park in Takigakure, although it was a lot larger in scale. Sitting on the edge, Naruto knew that it would not be a good place for a permanent base, since it would be easily spotted by anyone that came somewhat close. In the distance he could even see the main road leading towards the cliff and presumably making its way up at some point, although he could not see where it hit the cliff.

However he decided to call it a day and make camp here, since he could easily catch a few fish for food and the cliff gave a natural barrier against potential enemies so that he had only to worry about one direction. Setting down his backpack, he took out a kunai and made his way towards the lake.

The first thing he heard was water splashing, over the sound of the waterfall. As soon as he realized what he was hearing, he was on high alert, his hand slowly reaching out to find the kunai lying next to his sleeping bag, listening for the irregular splashes.

"Can you feel a chakra signature?" He asked Kurama in his thoughts, as he tried to make as little noise as possible while getting up and out of his tent. The fox took a bit longer to reply than usual, probably because he had been asleep just like Naruto.

"No, I can't feel anything." He eventually replied, as Naruto was looking out of his tent.

It was silent for a few moments before he heard the splash again. Looking around he couldn't see anything moving on the water. He slowly made his way towards the water and looked around again, as two more splashes sounded through the dark. Still nothing seemed to be moving on the lake. Walking up to the cliff, Naruto grew confused, since he should not be able to hear splashes from the water on the lower end of the waterfall, since the waterfall should cover up any noises from below. Looking over the edge, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. Turning around to take another look at the lake, he heard another splash.

This time he was sure that it had come from the waterfall, and not from the lake, so he crouched down and fixed his gaze on the falling liquid.

He looked at the water when the next splash sounded through the air. However, he only only saw a small disturbance in the flow but nothing that had caused it.