The Screaming Squirrel unfortunately used a chakra induced scream, which interfered with Jun"s and Itachi"s hearing. They ended up getting unbalanced because of it, stumbling directly into the group of Killer rabbits rushing towards them."Well d.a.m.n…. Their goes our ambush" Jun thought while seeing the bunch of critters with bloodthirsty look in their eyes leaping with unbelievable speed towards them. Itachi took out a Kunai hastily and somehow managed to nail the head of the Screaming Squirrel to the tree. Although it did have enough HP to withstand one hit, but it seemed like Itachi had learnt the Chakra flowing technique pretty well because of the Chakra Blade and had managed to create a coat of Chakra Flow on the Kunai which had resulted a One Hit Kill on striking the squirrel"s Vital Point. However doing the same with these rabbits seemed difficult.
Since they were surrounded by group of very alert Killer Rabbits, Jun and Itachi stood back to back to fend off this bunch. Jun didn"t wait to see what these rabbits would do to them and enhanced his body up a few levels using nature energy in his body. Although he was running a bit low on his stock of nature energy he figured it was not the time to be cheap about it. Having strengthened himself, he slammed his hand on the ground, creating a temporary rocky dome around them with an Earth Release.
"What are you doing? Seeing their speed and strength it won"t stop them for long" Itachi said pointing his thumb towards the dome wall.
"I know, but you are hurt and can"t perform at your peak. If we want to win, we both need to fight with 100%" Jun said as he covered his hand with Mystic Palm chakra and put it on Itachi"s ears, healing them. Withing a few minutes it was resolved and Jun"s ear damage had also been resolved by then due his quick regeneration in Nature Energy enhanced state. By the time they were done, the Dome jun made was on its last legs too. With a strong tackle from a Killer Rabbit , The dome shattered to pieces as Jun and Itachi simultaneously pushed each other and flipped back. The killer Rabbit which was responsible for dome"s destruction crashed on to the forest floor where Jun and Itachi were standing moments ago, leaving a sizable crater on the forest floor.
Jun and Itachi ducked out of the way of the numerous claws and teeth flashing towards them.
"Holy s.h.i.t that"s some sharp teeth they"ve got." Jun thought while devising a plan to get out of this encirclement. Brute force would drain them of too much chakra and there was still the Boss which had not shown itself yet. Itachi flashed out his Kodachi and stabbed a rabbit, that lunged at his neck, right through its mouth. He leaned back just enough to allow another to pa.s.s by his head, although it did leave a scratch on his cheek and ear. Jun sent a [Vacuum Palm] striking towards that rabbit and another that lunged at Jun"s leg was dodged with a forward somersault and countering with a foot right to its head. Itachi did a twin heel drop and crashed heads of two to the floor.
Itachi and Jun took a moment to catch their breath before resuming the battle. Seeing a rabbit rocketing off in a suicide dive towards them both of them leaped in opposite direction and fired off Jutsu in sync.
"Fire Release : Dragon Flame" Itachi
"Gentle Fist : Shadow Shuriken" Jun
The rabbits were mostly finished after that deadly combo of internal and external Jutsu combo. However there were still a few hidden champions it seemed. One of the the rabbits took a flying leap after using a tree trunk as a launching site. Jun sensed the guy due to his enhanced sense, and it was rewarded with a roundhouse kick to its head launching it up and grabbed its head smashing it onto his knee. Then the poor rabbit got taste of Jun"s nature chakra enhanced [Fire Release : Flamethrower], endless pale yellow colored fire with a hint of blue colored fire spewed out of Jun"s mouth. All the critters in front of him turned to ash along with a heavy chunk of his chakra.
Smoke filled their surrounding from the charred bodies of their enemies as two boys walked towards the final boss. They found a few crafting materials like the sharp claws of the rabbit, but since Itachi was not interested in it they decided that Jun would keep it for now until they have a better use for them.
"The last one was great Jun. What is that Fire Release called ?" Itachi
"Fire Release : Flamethrower, kind of a Nature chakra enhanced method of Fire Release with technique similar to your Dragon Flame Jutsu you displayed earlier, only its more focused and purer flame." Jun explained.
"It really felt like a purer type of flame as you said. How did you achieve that though? I copied the method using Sharingan but still there is something missing." Itachi
"What you are missing is a touch of nature energy and the concept behind it." Jun
"Leaving aside Nature energy, what do you mean by concept?" Itachi asked confused. It was like saying cook didn"t know how to cook. Uchihas were supposed to be the leading authority on Fire style jutsus, and here Jun was saying he didn"t understand the concept?
"Hmm, how to explain…. Ok, got it. Lets talk about a kindling of flame. How do you do it without any chakra use?"
"Umm, produce a spark with friction of dry firewood and let it blaze onto flammable material?" Itachi guessed
"Partially correct. You just skipped a really important step. There has to be plenty of fresh clean air supplied to the flame, to ensure the flame is hotter and stronger."
"So , you mix wind chakra?" Itachi
"More like you have to imprint your intention into the Jutsu to use cleaner air to burn hotter. This is actually easier to do if you have expertise in manipulating nature chakra."
"Hmm … So That"s it. Well it may not be possible right now but I will work on it."
While talking both of them reached center of the forest. The strangest thing was that no creature attacked them after their last encounter , and there was no sign of habitation anywhere around as if all the chakra mutants avoided this area even though there was decent vegetation here. Itachi and Jun carefully walked while looking around for signs of any creature.
Suddenly they heard rustling of underbush to their left. They turned to see a normal sized cute little rabbit peeking out from them. Both of them were stunned to see a regular animal in midst of all these monsters.
"Hey little guy , Just how did you survive for so long?" Jun crouched in front of the rabbit staring at its eyes while the rabbit stared right back.
"Why is this rabbit"s eyes so intelligent? s.h.i.t … I closed off my Sharingan" Itachi panicked as the rabbit disappeared right before their eyes only and they realized that it was an afterimage.