Caterpillar

Rest

A long but rather narrow and sinuous lake surrounded by tall and steep mountains on all sides. It was a fjord, a place of rarely seen beauty. A simple wooden boat was floating gently on top of the water and on the boat there was a red-eyed man with thick and dark whisker-like marks on his cheeks. Despite his rather scary-looking face, there was an aura of peace and calmness around him. With a straw hat on his head and a fishing rod in his hands, the young man looked as though he was one with nature, an integral part of it. It was as though the paysage would be incomplete without him.

All of a sudden, with a quick jerk of his wrists, he pulled on the fishing rod in his hands. An enormous yellow fish about 25 feet long cast a shadow over the lake when it was yanked out of the water. It was even larger than the man's wooden boat! But there was no panic in the man's red eyes. With practised movements, he threw 5 shurikens at the large fish still in mid-air. The five shurikens moved almost as though they were remote-controlled drones not thrown projectiles and they started flying in circles around the fish. Then, the man clenched his fist and 5 very thin metallic wires appeared in his hands seemingly out of nowhere - they had been connected to the thrown shurikens from the beginning.

Before the fish even started to fall, arcs of lightning travelled through the wires and zapped the large fish to death. Although the fish was now dead and the lightning had dispersed by the time the fish dropped back into the water, its body was still twitching, disturbing the previously still surface of the lake. But soon, the fish became immobile, its nerves finally ceasing their activity. The fisherman tied the metallic wires connected to the fish on one end of the wooden boat and then he grabbed the paddles and started to slowly move towards the shore. On the shore, a giant bonfire was burning merrily and a nine-tailed fox that was as big as a horse was pacing around restlessly.

The man and the fox in question were none other than Naruto and Kyuubi. They were in the midst of enjoying their holiday alone, on an unknown planet, away from civilisation. It was a planet from outside of the 3600 sectors of the known Universe protected by the Green Lantern Corps, in a star system located in the unknown void. Its living conditions were nearly identical to the Earth but there were no sentient creatures on this planet. There were only animals and because of that, nature was rich and pristine. It was Naruto and Kyuubi's secret refuge, a place where they sometimes went to heal their souls and rest.

⁂

One hour later, more than half of the enormous fish had already been cooked and eaten by the two of them. More exactly, it was Kyuubi that had eaten almost everything by himself. Lost in his greed and gluttony, he had even increased his size to that of an elephant so he could take bigger bites out of the fish and eat more at once.

In contrast to the voracious fox, Naruto was sitting cross-legged on the grassy ground with his eyes closed. As he drew in the natural energy of the planet, he periodically exhaled a greyish black cloud through his mouth. Once every few years Naruto came here to expel the impurities that his body accumulated by drawing in the natural energy of the planets that were inhabited by sentient species. Whenever he used his Sage Mode on such planets, he would draw on the polluted, infected energy of nature. It did not have an immediate effect on him if it was in small doses but if left it unattended, or if he drew too much of that infected energy at once, he could become like Jugo from the Elemental Nations and go berserk. Or worse, instead of going berserk, he could turn into a statue if he lost control of the natural energy in his body. He had gone through that in the past once so he was careful to not repeat his mistakes again.

"I love this planet. Such pure nature, such calmness, such peace." Naruto opened his eyes and said. "I feel like any Sage Mode user would be able to prolong their lifespan by decades if not even centuries simply by living here."