Naruto: Journey Of The Strongest Teacher - Chapter 87

Location: Cat Realm

On a large grassy plain, a smoke cloud appeared, and out of it came a boy fully armed with kunais on each finger and even one in his mouth ala Zabuza style.

His eyes were roaming around the area he was summoned to, analyzing every single sea tail that came into his eye if anything was a danger to his existence.

“I am ready for battle,” was the sound spoken through the full mouth.

“I think I have to talk with Namikaze-san about your behavior,” g.r.o.a.n.e.d Shisui, who emerged out of the smoke.

Both looked around, and Ishizu’s eyes widened at the sight before him as even the kunai dropped out of his mouth.

The place was like out of a movie. The sun shined brightly into the valley before them. The grass reflected the sun’s rays, making it look hypnotizing to the person, and the small drops on the grass gave away that it had recently rained.

Ishizu took a deep breath of air into his lungs and exhaled as he smelled the grass.

‘What a beautiful sight! If not for Konoha, I would want to live here,’ Shisui thought while Ishizu had other things in his mind.

‘This beautiful scene reminds me of a movie I watched a long time ago, yet I can’t remember it. Still, I have to say it is truly a beautiful place.’

“Ishizu, come. I know this place looks exceptional, but we have a mission to do,” said Shisui.

Ishizu woke up from the trance and followed the Uchiha.

Even during the walk, Ishizu felt conflicted about the scenery. His brain was working at high speed to remember why this place looked familiar.

He couldn’t remember, but he had a feeling that staying here for a long time would be dangerous. Ishizu trusted his feeling over mostly anything and would therefore stay vigilant.

“Let’s get this over with I have a bad feeling that if we stay too long, we will end up in a dangerous position,” commented Ishizu as he followed Shisui.

“Halt, strangers! You are coming close to the residence of the Cat Clan. Leave, or we will show hostility,” said a cat while holding a spear up at them.

“We are from Konohagakure. Our Hokage has sent us to find allies to help us in the war,” explained Shisui.

“We don’t care about your world, humans. This is Cat Haven, a paradise for cats and cats only. How do I know you come here without ulterior motives?”

Ishizu was not having a good time as this got really quickly to a bad thing.

Cat Haven, really?

Something was wrong, and Ishizu would either find it out or leave with Shisui underneath his arm without risking his life.

Better be alive and fail a mission than dead, since when you are dead you can’t enjoy life.

“Enough, Dendo! They are guests, so give let them pass.”

Ishizu’s eye fell on the one that spoke. A white cat with a few black spots around her face revealed itself. It was obvious that she was of a higher standard than the first cat since the latter quickly lowered his head.

“I am sorry, Lady Guinevere. I will let them pass immediately,” apologized Dendo while bowing his head.

“Come, Shinobi, Lady Tamara is expecting you.”

As they walked, Ishizu came closer to Shisui.

“Did you hear her name?” whisper Ishizu.

“Yes. It was somehow hard to pronounce,” mused Shisui.

‘Yeah, for you. For me, not so hard. Come to think of it, the cat pronounced her name without an accent. How is that possible? I think I heard it wrong.’

Ishizu quickly blocked the thought as his eyes set sight on the gigantic castle.

The castle looked ancient with its walls having large cracks on them, yet it looked impenetrable. Two small miniatures in the shape of cats were seen in the front.

Yet despite the gorgeous view, Ishizu only frowned. The reason for that being?

Konoha had a few castles, but they were made in the style of the Japanese, but never had he seen a medieval castle in the Elemental Nations.

“I have a very bad vibe about a certain movie,” muttered Ishizu.

“What are you talking about?” asked Shisui.

“Nothing. Let us meet the Boss and get this over with.”

The entrance door to the castle opened to reveal an enormous hallway. The long hallways had a huge dining table with many chairs around it.

Just at the end of the table was a much larger…that didn’t look like a chair at all. More like a cat’s nest made by humans for cats.

There, inside that thing, laid a ginger with black and white spots all over her body. She had a long, beautiful whitetail that kept twitching now and then.

‘A calico cat usually indicates a female, so this must be Tamara,’ thought Ishizu.

(Yes, male cats can also have three colors, but this is extremely rare and is a genetic defect of the XXY chromosome for those who are really into genetics. It is equivalent to the Klinefelter syndrome in humans)

“Welcome, humans. I am the Cat Boss of Cat Haven, Tamara-sama. I welcome you, but before we talk business for you coming, let us have a feast,” spoke Tamara.

Her voice was beautiful to the human ears. Like it was meant to hypnotize them to do very stupid things.

‘I have a VERY BAD feeling about this,’ thought Ishizu as they were guided into a special room to prepare.

Tamara had spare clothes for humans and to eat they had to dress accordingly.

As Shisui and Ishizu were getting dressed, Ishizu took a small piece of paper out of the backpack. The Chunin was thankful that he had at least a bit of privacy here.

“If they think I will eat anything they offer me, then good luck with that. No way will I eat something here. This little boy will help me trick them. No one will know I have not eaten,” muttered Ishizu in a low voice.

Opening his mouth, Ishizu stuck his tongue out and place the seal he prepared on his tongue.

It was a small storage seal, so when the food came in contact with his tongue, it would be absorbed before reaching his stomach.

Entering the dining room, Shisui and Ishizu saw many cats serving the table with various delicious-looking food.

“Come, let us eat and talk about the problems you have and I should deal with,” said Tamara as she invited the two humans to eat.

Shisui observed the food for any poisons before taking some milk and was instantly drawn to more. He couldn’t help but eat since it was so delicious. Ishizu looked at the fish and placed it on his tongue so it could disappear before its taste would affect him.

“Wow, Tamara-sama, this is really delicious, but we came here to discuss if you were to help us in the war,” said Shisui after finishing his milk and a plate of fish before looking strictly at the cat boss.

“Oh, the war you humans are having. I have to think about it. See, I don’t have so many cats who can fight outside of Sora-ku, and those dogs sometimes harass our realm. So instead of training my followers, I came up with another method to gain followers,” explained Tamara as a huge grin formed on her face.

“And those would be, how? Where do you get your followers?” asked Ishizu, slowly reaching for his leg where a storage seal was.

That was the moment he had been waiting for. His breathing became slower, his eyes focused on Tamara, and his adrenalin was just about to be released.

“Why you, of course. Turning humans into cats is my motto,” said Tamara in a casual tone, as if it was a daily occurrence.

Yeah, Ishizu realized why this place seemed too familiar and why he had thought it was similar to a movie. The place outside plus the food was a bit hard to connect but turning humans into cats….

The Cat Returns was a movie Ishizu enjoyed watching when he was a child. He loved it so much he even bought a DVD for it.

If Ishizu was a civilian, he would have panicked, but being paranoid gave him the advantage of always be prepared and not be consumed by fear.

“I think I’ve heard enough,” said Ishizu as he quickly stood up, grabbed the paper bomb out of the storage seal, and threw it at Tamara before grabbing Shisui by his back and escaping.

“After them! Don’t let those two escape!” shouted Tamara from behind the smoke.

Kicking the cats away that were in his way, Ishizu ran with his comrade when he heard a voice.

“I think I don’t feel so good, Ishizu,” said Shisui in a whispering voice.

Ishizu looked at the Uchiha and to his shock, he saw real cat ears protruding from Shisui’s head.

His human ears were gone and Ishizu theorized that if they didn’t leave, more would change.

‘****, this is totally like The Cat Returns.’

“Don’t freak out, Shisui, but you are turning into a cat,” explained Ishizu to the Uchiha, who froze.

Slowly Shisui looked at his hands as they too were slowly transforming into paws.

Shisui sighed at what was happening. He should have been more careful about this mission, but he didn’t expect the cats to betray him and Ishizu.

“You were right. They had ill intentions. I am sorry,” apologized Shisui with a head bow.

Ishizu rolled his eyes at the apology. It wasn’t Shisui’s fault since the Uchiha and the cats were comrades. His duty now was to safely escort Shisui and himself back to Konoha and report the mission to be a failure.

“In any other circ.u.mstance I would like to gloat about such thing, but at this moment I couldn’t care less if I was right or not. We have other things to worry about, like escaping crazy boss cat unharmed. This Tamara just shrugged off a paper bomb to her face without even getting a burn mark from it. Talk about the boss cat. She is strong and I like to pride myself, but even I am not stupid to think I can defeat her alone. I need to prepare for such a big boss. You have to stall for me when I prepare everything in my backpack.”

The two stopped and Ishizu took out his scrolls and put a small genjutsu barrier around himself while Shisui stood guard before he saw Tamara and a handful of cats coming closer.

“So…you have stopped running? I thought you were going to give us a bit for fun,” said the Cat Boss, as the cats surrounded Shisui.

They could attack him, but Tamara waited.

“Where is our friend? He also should be turning into a cat. He is quite paranoid to use Fuinjutsu to stop the food, but even if he ate nothing, he will turn into one. It is only a matter of time which I have enough. Never mind, we will find him too, but first…Take him down!” Tamara ordered the cats who engaged Shisui.

Shisui smirked as he activated his Sharingan and used the body flicker technique to take the cats down.

He didn’t kill them, but only put them unconscious since infuriating Tamara wasn’t a good idea.

“You Uchiha’s are good, but against me, you can do nothing,” said Tamara, smirking as hold up her right paw.

Shisui narrowed his eye when he saw what looked like gems of excellent quality. There were sapphires, rubies, and emeralds.

“Your other human thinks he is so special just because he dubbed himself in some Fuinjutsu, but I am a special type of cat who has special gems.”

Suddenly, the gems began to glow and Tamara threw them around the battlefield and a massive barrier of red, green, and blue color was erected.

“Fuinjutsu: Gem Dome.”

Ishizu looked up for a second as he saw the massive barrier being erected. Naturally, Ishizu had knowledge about barriers, but he had never seen Fuinjutsu being combined with gems.

Yet there was something more. He didn’t know how he could know, but there was no chakra embedded in the stones.

“As long as nature energy is flowing through the gems the barrier cannot be broken. Surrender, human, and I won’t break all of your bones.”