Takigakure - Beneath the Towering Waterfall
Fu sat by the rushing stream, kicking the water barefoot, the splashes refracting rainbow colors in the sunlight. She looked up at the sky, which was fragmented by the waterfall, her bright orange hair swaying restlessly with her restless head shaking.
"Ugh--! I'm so suffocated!"
The girl suddenly fell backward, landing on the grass in a starfish position. Several startled butterflies fluttered around her, their wings scattering phosphorescent powder.
"Little girl, your Chakra is restless again."
The voice of Seven-Tails Chōmei echoed deep within his consciousness, carrying the buzzing quality unique to insects.
"Chongming! Let's sneak out!" Fu sat up with a jolt, her eyes shining brightly. "Let's go see those people playing on the Heavenly Screen, they're so cool!"
The waterfall's mist formed a small rainbow around her. Several passing ninja quickened their pace upon seeing this—whenever such an anomaly in Natural Energy appeared near Jinchūriki, it meant the village was about to suffer again.
"Have you forgotten those guys in Akatsuki cloak in the Heavenly Screen?"
Chongming's six wings trembled slightly in the mental space. "They capture Tailed Beasts as easily as catching insects."
"That's different!" Fu suddenly unfurled her translucent insect wings and soared into the sky. "We can fly! Those bad guys who want to catch you won't be able to catch us!"
She nimbly flipped in the air, her pale purple Chakra scattering like stardust. Below, in the Training Ground, the village chief, Shibuki, who was instructing the ninjas, looked up at the sky with an expression as if he had a stomachache.
"Please don't release the Tailed Beast Chuck over the village again!"
"Watanabe!" The girl swooped down, hovering like a giant dragonfly in front of the village chief. "I'm going to find Naruto Uzumaki! That super handsome blond kid in the Heavenly Screen!"
The scroll in Shibuki's hand fell to the ground with a thud. Several Anbu behind him had already reflexively formed Sealing Jutsu seals.
"See?" Chongming said helplessly, "They won't agree."
Fu landed on the giant tree at the village entrance, her cheeks puffed out. The twilight light filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on her face. In the distance, several children were playing ninja games, and when they saw her, they hid behind their parents with a mixture of awe and curiosity.
"Chongming..." Her fingers unconsciously dug into the tree bark. "Why do you say that Jinchūriki always have to be locked up?"
The Seven-Tails was silent for a moment. It recalled that decades ago, when it was assigned to various countries by Hashirama Senju, this human girl's grandmother had asked a similar question.
"Because of fear"
The insect's wings gently folded. "Humans both fear our power and yearn to possess it."
As night fell, a streak of seven-colored light flashed past Fu's window. The ninja on night watch assumed it was Jinchūriki practicing Chakra control, unaware that a substitute made from an insect cocoon lay quietly on the treetop.
The real maiden is flying south on the moonlight, her Seven-Tails wings appearing and disappearing among the clouds.
" Chongming! Accelerate, accelerate!"
"... Whom do you take after for this willful habit?"
"Of course it's like you!!"
Takigakure - Late Night
Shibuki sprang from the bed, ignoring the pain when his forehead hit the chandelier. The pale moonlight outside the window illuminated the crooked words "Village Chief" on his pajamas—a gift Fu had given him last week in permanent ink.
"They ran away again?!" His voice trembled. "Didn't I tell you to install Chakra sensing network at the waterfall entrance?!"
The Anbu knelt on one knee on the windowsill, his voice bitter behind the mask. "She... she used the Insect Clone Substitution Technique. By the time the patrol discovered her, her true form was already..."
Shibuki frantically pulled at his hair. The note Fu had left on the bedside table swayed gently in the night breeze; it contained an exaggerated smiley face and scribbled handwriting:
Go out and make some friends! Don't miss me!
A piece of iridescent powder still clung to the corner of the paper, shimmering eerily in the moonlight.
"Immediately notify the border post!" Shibuki hurriedly put on his coat.
Forest outside the village at the same time
"Chongming! Fly higher!" Fu weaved through the clouds, the Seven-Tails' Chakra transforming into a shimmering, iridescent Hagoromo. She turned back to gaze at the lights of Takigakure in the distance, giving a triumphant V-sign.
The Seven-Tails' voice held a hint of helplessness. "The traces of your scales are enough for them to track you back to the Land of Fire."
"That's exactly what I want them to do!" The girl suddenly swooped down, startling a flock of night herons. "That idiot Shibuki, he always says it's dangerous outside..."
She nimbly somersaulted, her fingertips tracing the stream, leaving a trail of water droplets. "But isn't Naruto in the Heavenly Screen also Jinchūriki? He can make friends everywhere!"
The Seven-Tails silently sensed the girl's envy. Suddenly, its six wings flapped. "Watch out!"
Three Kunai through the air, colliding and crossing at the spot where Fu had been standing. Below, in the treetops, three members of the Takigakure pursuit team were forming hand seals.
"Lady Fu! Please return to the village immediately!"
"No way!" Fu suddenly accelerated, her Chakra leaving a rainbow trail in the air. She formed hand seals. "Scale Powder Concealment Technique!"
A sudden burst of light fragments filled the sky, causing the pursuers to lose sight of their target. When visibility returned, only a few fading colored lights remained in the night sky.
Three pale heads emerged from the pile of decaying leaves like mushrooms, their six bright yellow eyes fixed on the brightly lit village in the distance.
"Look, look!" The fattest White Zetsu zeolite pointed to the sky with its mycelium, "That rainbow light flew away!"
In the night sky, Fu's Chakra wings were scattering shimmering scales, leaving a silvery trail in the moonlight.
The tall, thin White Zetsu scratched his bald head. "Shouldn't we chase after them? Lord Black Zetsu said we should monitor Jinchūriki..."
"Are you stupid?!" The third White Zetsu slapped its companion on the head. "They're flying in the sky! We're crawling on the ground! How are we supposed to chase them? With spore sprayers?"
They all looked up, watching the rainbow streak sweep across the moon in an exaggerated Z-shaped path, finally disappearing as a small dot in the southern sky.
"What's going on with these Jinchūriki...?" Fat White Zetsu counted on his fingers, "Each one is stranger than the last..."
"Let's go back and report first~" The shortest White Zetsu has already started to sink.