Chapter 35 Wild Cat
The cry of the bald eagle brought Naruto back to his thoughts and he noticed a shelf placed upside down next to a small table in the corner of the room.
The giant bird landed on the floor and tried to stick its head into the gap between the shelf and the floor.
However, it was too big to get in. It had no choice but to raise its head and call out to Naruto anxiously.
"Coming, coming." Naruto responded as he walked forward.
When Naruto reached out to move the shelf, the bald eagle jumped a few steps to the side to make room for him.
The shelf was made of dark oak and was very heavy. Naruto had to inject chakra into his legs and arms to barely move it a little.
However, even with the chakra he used, he still felt nauseous.
Although he could use chakra to suppress the pain caused by the corrosion of the Nine-Tails' chakra in his body, he could still feel that every time he used chakra, it would rush through his body, accumulate in his blood vessels, and settle in his joints.
He couldn't remember the last time he felt chakra flowing freely in his body.
The shelf made a dull thud as it finally moved away from the rubble.
The bald eagle let out a cheerful cry, and then impatiently began to scratch something on the floor with its claws.
A few minutes later, it flew up again. Naruto put the shelf back in place, supported his hands on his knees, and tried to suppress the urge to vomit.
The bald eagle flapped its wings and landed on the shelf in front of Naruto, nodding its head up and down excitedly.
It had something in its mouth, and as it shook its head, it made a slight clinking sound.
"What did you find?" Naruto straightened up and asked.
However, the giant bird did not answer him, but simply tilted its head in curiosity, which made him smile to himself.
"Okay, okay, if you don't want to tell me, then forget it. I hope your discovery is worth all the trouble."
The bald eagle didn't say anything else, just tilted its head curiously again, then flapped its wings and flew away.
Naruto watched it leave before turning and walking out of the tower and back to his work.
There was only one last body left to deal with, and he could sense it nearby.
However, just as he walked out of the tower, the bald eagle suddenly swooped down again and landed steadily on his shoulder.
It stretched its head in front of Naruto and shook it constantly, and the small shiny object in its mouth shook with it.
Naruto held out his hand curiously, and the giant bird placed it in his palm.
It was a piece of jewelry, a piece of jewelry that Naruto had never seen before.
It looked like an unfinished ring, made of some shiny black metal, with the symbol of the Whirlpool Kingdom engraved on it - a golden spiral pattern.
Two thin gold chains are connected to one side of the ring, and a round gem is inlaid at the end of each gold chain.
One of the gems was crystal clear, almost as big as the tip of Naruto's little finger, and its color was unpredictable, from dark blue that was close to black to bright purple, with various blue colors flowing in it.
The other was a pure black gem that looked like onyx or obsidian, with a golden tree carved on it. Its branches and roots were intertwined and formed a strange knot-like pattern. The pattern was exactly the same as the one seen on the wall of the temple before.
"Are you going to give it to me?" Naruto asked.
The bald eagle cried out happily, as if responding to him.
It affectionately used its beak to comb the strands of hair on Naruto's forehead, then tucked them behind his ears.
Naruto carefully placed the oddly shaped piece of jewelry into his pocket, where the scroll containing the Nine-Tails' seal lay.
Just as Naruto was preparing to bury the last batch of remains from the Whirlpool Country, he discovered a thief.
He had just placed the last skeleton when he looked up and saw a wild cat crouched next to his backpack. It was a slender cat with marbled black and gold fur, chewing the strap of his old backpack.
The man and the cat looked at each other, with a cunning light flashing in the cat's eyes.
"Don't..." Naruto lowered his voice and stood up as slowly as possible, but instead of backing off, the cat shook its shoulders and twisted its body playfully, as if to provoke him.
"Stop it, shut up... Damn it!" The cat jumped away nimbly and Naruto chased after it like a possessed man.
That backpack contained not only all of his sealing scrolls and spare clothes, but also the last box of curry given to him by Sensei Iruka, a treasure that he could not lose under any circumstances.
The cat did not run away, but played a game of cat and mouse with him in the square. Every time Naruto thought he was about to catch it, it would always escape cleverly.
After chasing back and forth for a while, Naruto accidentally tripped over a piece of mosaic and almost fell.
When he got up in a panic, he found that the cat was standing in front of him, looking down at him.
The wild cat licked its paws proudly. Its arrogant look reminded Naruto of Sasuke who had just won the competition. The similarities between them were simply uncanny.
The cat kicked its hind legs and pushed the backpack to Naruto's feet, then walked to the side leisurely and squatted down.
Naruto glared at the backpack on the ground, not daring to let his guard down at all.
"What do you want?" he asked.
The cat heard Naruto's question and walked over to a light-colored stone where the Whirlpool Kingdom pattern had fallen off, exactly where Naruto had almost hit his head.
There was a long crack in the stone that didn't fit in with the surrounding circular pattern.
The cat ignored the crack and raised its paw, pressing lightly on the stone, seemingly trying to get Naruto's attention.
Then, it released a pulse of chakra. When it raised its claws again, a symbol of the sun and moon intertwined with fiery red lines appeared on the stone.
When Naruto looked up again, the cat had disappeared, just like the spirits that had appeared before. And when he looked down at the stone again, the symbol had also disappeared without a trace.
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