Inoichi soon came out with a baby in his hands he was trying to appease. The baby was obviously Ino-Chan, Inoichi"s little princess. Her clear teal colored eyes gave a refreshing innocent look as she smiled at Yoshino and Jun."Ah, Yoshino-san, a pleasant surprise. Oh and this must be Jun-kun." Inoichi exclaimed in surprise. This was the first time he had seen him after that fateful day one year ago.
"Yes, actually I wanted some new plants for the backyard, some animals chewed through a few. Can I have a few seedlings? Also I wanted to show Jun around, since this is the first time Jun has come out of the Nara mansion." Yoshino explained.
"You should take him out more often. How about it Jun would you like to roam around and see our gardens?"
"Yes, Inoichi sama. I love being in nature."
"No need for sama, san will do. All right then, let"s go in."
Inoichi took them inside, pa.s.sing through the shop to the enormous garden in the back. A wide variety of flowers, herbs and various other plants were growing in there. It looked like an entire different world in there. Jun was mesmerised, his blood and his body were singing in joy as if they were finally home. Inoichi took them around the garden explaining various plants and their uses to Jun and Yoshino.
After telling Jun to play amongst the plants, but warning him to not touch any of the dangerous ones, Inoichi, baby Ino and Yoshino went inside to get the seedlings she wanted. Jun kept wandering inside, playing with the insects and b.u.t.terflies wandering amongst the flowers. He saw a little squirrel hiding beneath one large leaf of an herb, and started chasing it. It ran to a corner of the garden, and up a big and wide tree. Tired with the exertion of his body, Jun decided rest under the same tree. Since because of his bloodline he couldn"t fall asleep, he decided to meditate instead. His weariness and mental exhaustion faded away slowly as he went deeper in his meditation. Usually he meditated in his room since if he did it outside, someone would disturb him since he was just a child. But here in the bosom of Mother Nature, there was no one, just him. Slowly, everything around him faded away, chirping of birds, buzzing of insects, shuffling tiny feet of rodents.
The more he went deep in him, the more he could feel subconsciously that things were changing in him and his surroundings. However he couldn"t care less, as he stopped all conscious thought and just drifted away.
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When Yoshino and Inoichi arrived back, they couldn"t find Jun anywhere. Yoshino panicked and started questioning Inoichi.
"You sure he can"t go out from your garden Inoichi? I am really worried, the boy never leaves far away from house, and today, the first time I take him out this happens. Oh, I am so irresponsible..." Yoshino panicked, tears forming in her eyes.
"Don"t fret like that Yoshino, Jun is definitely safe and sound. There is no way in or out of this garden except the way we came. There are many precious herbs in this place hence its security is really tight. It"s impossible for someone to go past us, especially a one year old child that won"t even know how to sneak around."
"Then where is he? Shikaku will chew me out if something happens to him. I am going to search, let"s split up and search the entire garden."
"Let alone Shikaku, the Hokage will chew ME out if something happens to that child." Inoichi thought. "Yes lets split up."
They both split up and searched the whole garden, but no sign of Jun was found. Inoichi even tried sending out a weak sensory pulse just in case if he could sense his chakra, but to no avail. All he could sense in this garden was the plants.
After consoling Yoshino again, Inoichi took two of his trusted men and started inquiring people around his shop if they had seen a one year old toddler coming out of the shop. The inquiries went high and low but to no avail. Tired and disappointed, he came back to the garden and saw Yoshino roaming around it again, searching for traces of Jun. Just as he was going to stop her, he saw something really weird. Now that he was slightly calmer than before, he could see that his garden looked a little different. There were subtle differences, but ultimately he could see that all the plants were all slightly but surely turning and stretching in a certain direction. When his gaze followed that direction he was dumbfounded, stunned as to how he did not notice such a major change. The trunk part of the large tree in the corner of the garden was entirely hidden because of a wall of plants. He couldn"t believe it, neither that a wall of plants hid the tree and he couldn"t perceive that, nor the fact that such a wall growing in the span of a few hours was not possible.
He immediately called Yoshino"s attention to that wall, and as they rushed towards it, both wondered how they had missed such an obvious change. When they reached it, they could see that it was like a spongy curtain, shielding what was inside from the outside. Most weird was that, although his instinct told Jun was inside, He still could only sense the presence of nature not a human.
The pushed apart the curtain slowly, and were dumfounded at what they saw. Jun was there safe and sound, seemed to be in some kind of deep meditation, unable to be disturbed by outside influences. His face was peaceful, and radiated an aura charged with energy and vitality that made them relax just by being in his presence. His face was as if glowing with an inner light, and if someone concentrated, they would see faint golden tiny runes , swirling and blinking on his chocolate colored skin , like stars in the sky. His velvety black hair was tinged with gold, streaks of soft golden colour could be seen between his locks.
But the thing that took the cake was his surroundings. All kinds of small animals like squirrels and rats could be seen sitting around him in peace, some even sitting on his lap. Few little birds hopped around him, finding food, few even sat on his head and shoulders , tucking in their head under their wings and sleeping. The most amazing thing was the plants, which were stretching towards him with their branches and leaves bowed, as if paying respect to their ruler.
Neither Yoshino nor Inoichi could figure out what was going on with Jun.