Chapter Two: GILGAMESH.
The fox-masked leader went ahead of the group toward something shiny that caught his eye and the rest of the group followed.
Kakashi smelled a few ninjas ahead of him and fresh greenery. He had already caught up to Guy at that point and told him to stop which Guy reluctantly did and declared a tie to this competition. It took Kurenai a few minutes to reach their position. She stopped behind them since she noticed how quiet they were and refrained from talking but looked ahead while crouching on a branch and using the tree as cover.
'Is that the Anbu?' Kurenai questioned herself internally before deciding how to approach the situation. Since Kakashi, the team lead hasn't done anything so far given his long history with the Anbu she waited for his orders.
The Anbu are an elite group of highly trained, promising, and talented ninjas that carry out secret operations for the sake of the village and receive their orders directly from the Hokage. Their positions are envied and protected and they cannot be arrested by the police force without a warrant or permission from the Hokage. They like to keep their identities a secret even amongst themselves so as not to involve their personal lives mixed up with businesses related to their organization.
Kakashi waited until the root ninjas were out of site.
"What the hell happened to this place?" Kakashi asked.
"This place makes the rest of the forest look dead compared to how vibrant it looks!" Guy said keeping his voice low.
"Is this some natural phenomenon or something? Genjutsu (illusion)? Of this scale?" Kurenai asked with disbelief in her eyes and was tempted to pinch herself.
"Doesn't matter. From the looks of things, it seems that Lord Danzo's men beat us to the location. This still falls within our plan. We can either wait to ambush them or we can attack them now." Kakashi said with a low tone and looked at his squad members. They both nodded in agreement to the last option and prepared themselves for to attack.
Suddenly a lightning strike from the heavens struck the location where the root ninjas were. The fox-masked ninja who led his team found a pit dug three and a half meters (twelve feet)deep unnaturally into the ground filled with gold, gold coins, a gold chalice, gold rings, gold ornaments, golden garments, golden swords, gold chainmail, golden armours, gold scepters and other gold inscribed items that looked too foreign for the description given the knowledge available in the current era.
The fox-masked leader had never seen so much gold in one place and felt like killing his subordinates to make away with the treasures he had just found. He could buy a whole village or start his village and hire high-level rogue ninjas to supplement the military force of his new village. All in all, he knew he would live a free and easy life from now on even if he chose to stay off the grid, he figured his descendants would thank him for that. But it was not only him that felt that way at that sight, some of the ninjas began reaching for their weapons with enough stealth so as not to alert the other.
Unknown to them, that small treasure was guarded by a spirit weapon that issues commands that differ based on the human emotion it senses. The spirit weapon sensed greed, blood lust, and malicious intent so it cast a magical formation that shot to the sky. Magical runes lit up in the clouds above the root ninja that same instant and released a lightning strike six meters wide on the root ninjas.
Six lives were taken with little effort and only a charred crater remained. Kakashi and his team only approached the point of the lightning strike thirty minutes after because of the magnitude and the intensity they felt from it. In their vision, the world went white and then returned to its normal colours before a deafening sound filled the area. Their eyes lit up in awe and caution as they decided without speaking to wait before approaching forward.
"It could be a forbidden weapon, jutsu, or trap by the enemy. But I don't think they can use that attack twice." Kakashi tried to reassure the group as they ventured forward. Kakashi was confident in Kurenai's ability to put the enemy group in a genjutsu so he prioritized her protection as they continued forward.
They found the crater created by the lightning strike and could smell the faint smell of something burnt. The trio noticed the treasure in the pit was still fine and virtually untouched. That brought about a look of curiosity to the group as they inspected the area with their senses in case other ninjas were watching.
Then, the sound of a male and female voice mixed in reverberated in the area.
"My name has no meaning to you mortals but I have inspected your hearts and you bear no ill will. What are your names and state your objectives lest you be struck like the group that came before you." The voice surprised the trio as they tried to probe where the voice was coming from but to no avail. Kakashi immediately raised his headband that covered his right eye, activated his Sharingan, and looked around frantically.
"I'm over here." The voice resounded above them and the trio backed away at the same time and took out their kunai and took a battle stance. The voice came from a golden orb that floated in the air.
"We are the hidden leaf shinobi sent by Lord Third to find out what caused this." Kakashi replied earnestly as he found no reason to lie to whatever he was speaking with.
"I thought you would at least try to lie. I can sense emotions and tell what's the truth and what's a lie. If you lied or hid anything I would have killed you right away." The golden orb spoke as its colour intensified. For some reason, the trio felt fear of this creature or fear of the unknown but they soon overcame it and prepared themselves for an eventual clash.
"And brave too. You all fit the requirements to meet the master, the king. Follow me." The golden orb said and hovered away and into the forest. Guy and Kurenai exchanged glances at Kakashi at which Kakashi made an I don't know gesture but followed the golden orb. They arrived at a huge tree whose trunk looked artificially remodeled after red and gold designs.
But what lay in there surprised the trio. There was a baby with bright blond hair sleeping peacefully on a red pillow that fit like a little bed.
"How in the?" Guy wanted to ask but was interrupted by a golden orb flowing in front of him.
"His name is Gilgamesh." The golden orb said with pride and reverence in its voice.
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NEXT CHAPTER: GILGAMESH II.
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