The eye patch man led them out of the camp this time, leaving them the moment they reached the edge and pointing them towards where the Outcast's had set up their camp.
....
The first thing that Naruto noticed when they got closer to the Outcast Camp was just how…different, it looked to the Rebellion Camp. Where the Rebels had arranged everything perfectly military and uniform, the Outcasts Camp looked like a mixture of different camps that had been clumsily pushed together.
Few tents looked the same, all different styles, sizes and shapes. But even the ones that did look the same weren't together; they were all spread out in a seemingly random pattern.
But the moment Furui led him into the actually camp itself; Naruto couldn't help but stare in amazement at the people walking around and between the tents.
As they passed a dark purple tent Naruto saw a man sitting outside on the ground that seemed to have fallen asleep, the man had dark skin and coppery coloured hair.
Naruto saw two women and three children all dressed in animal skins with the head of said animals acting as hoods/masks with their green eyes glinting slightly in darkness as night crept in, the small family was all crouched around a roaring fire pit, with any exposed skin they had covered in white paint. All but one of them was wearing a wolf skin, with the exception being one of the women who was wearing what looked like a bear skin.
As Furui saw him glancing in their direction he explained that they were the Nabarah Clan, a clan of skin changers, who were able to use the skins of animals to turn into said animals. But not in the way of a Henge, they were able to physically wear the hide like a second skin.
They were a Clan famed for their infiltration and assassination abilities, but who were feared for the macabre nature of their ability.
Carrying on through the Camp, Naruto also saw his travelling companion Kyojin standing outside a very large brown tent with a woman the blond could only assume was his wife and several other members of his Clan.
Like Kyojin they all seemed to wear the bare minimum amount of clothing, and their bodies were covered in tribal tattoos. Though Naruto did notice that one of the men's tattoos was brown and another's tattoos were blue for some reason instead of red like Kyojin's.
As he continued on through the Outcast Camp he also saw several members of Shapu's clan as well, all who had their bows and arrows close by and at the ready.
They passed one tent that looked like it had been made into a blacksmith, with a furnace built outside that was being constantly fed to keep it hot. Naruto was a little surprised to see a group of ten men moving around it at a fast pass, yet not getting in any of the others way, to Naruto they looked to be moving in perfect synchronicity.
However the most surprising thing about it though, was the fact that all the men couldn't have been taller than three foot at the most, with several of the men being even shorter than that.
He didn't even need to look Furui's way to get an explanation from the old man this time; a he explained that they were members of the Gungnir Clan, a Clan which produced masters of craftsmanship, with the weapons they produce being known as some of the finest in the land, beyond even weapons from the Land of Iron in terms of quality and strength.
Unfortunately though their Clan was rejected entrance into the Hidden Cloud Village during the formation of the villages, apparently the fact that every member of the Clan always suffered from dwarfism was enough of a turn off for the Clan to be refused entrance.
Even while living in the Hidden Leaf Naruto had never seen so many different people in one place, and based on the way they were all interacting and greeting each other everyone got along just fine. Hardly anyone even turned to look in their direction as they passed other than to wave at Furui before going back to whatever it was they were doing before, barley even glancing at Naruto as he walked along besides Furui.
There was also an air of calmness that wasn't felt at the Rebel Camp, where their seemed to be a constant tension in the air, Naruto found that he liked the more chilled out atmosphere of the Outcast Camp than the more rigid atmosphere of the Rebel Camp.
"Hey! What took you so long?" A voice said suddenly interrupting Naruto from his thoughts.
Jumping slightly as he was brought out of his thoughts, Naruto turned to see Victor waving at him from a tent in front of them with his usual insane grin on his face. The tent itself actually made Naruto think of his friend in that it looked to have been patched together out of several different tents, and not all of them were the same colour.
However the thing that really caught Naruto's attention was the woman next to Victor and the…thing that stood next to her.
It had the basic shape of a man, though was twice the size of Kyojin in both height and width. It was wearing clothes that just like the tent they were stood in front of were patched together, only without sleeves, most likely because no one would make clothes for something that size.
Its skin was a dull grey colour and had more scars then even Victor, and its head looked a little too small for the rest of its body. It was also bald, though that was mostly because its head looked like it was made of metal with the skin bolted to it in several places.
Its arms were also too long even though they were just as muscular as the rest of its body with a pair of giant bolts sticking out of its shoulders, and the way it stood made it looked to have the posture of a gorilla with its arms being used to walk more than its legs. Instead of hands the thing had blade like appendages grafted on to its limbs.
Overall it looked more like a zombie then Victor… as it looked like it had been made from several different bodies being sewn together. To Naruto who was probably not even five feet tall, the monstrous twelve almost thirteen foot abomination was absolutely terrifying.
The woman Naruto strangely enough was relieved to find looked more like Victor, including the scars and wiry grey hair that was sticking up in every direction while still falling to her shoulders.
She looked older than Victor, probably in her mid-twenties, and just like his friend she wore a patchwork lab coat and she even had a similar looking shovel on her back just like his friend. However the thing that really stood out about the woman was her right hand, it looked to be made of metal and was several sizes too big compared to the rest of her body.
Instead of fingers Naruto saw what looked like giant needles that could have been used as senbon, and he also noticed that there was ninja wire running up from each finger into her sleeve. Looking at it closely it looked like a more sophisticated version of Victor's weaponized bracers. Though also for some reason Naruto couldn't help but be reminded of a sewing machine as he looked at it.
As they got closer Victor came running up to Naruto, the woman following along behind him at a slower pace while the giant…thing stayed behind and stared off into space with a blank look on its face. When the two were standing in front of him Victor was practically bouncing in place as he pointed to the woman.
"This is my third cousin Gekai, on my dad's left big toes side…I think…something like that, or was it on my arm's mother's side…. Anyway Gekai this is the friend I was telling you about, you know the one that eats Souls, I still don't have a name for him though…"
Naruto ignored the pointed look Victor sent him with the last comment and took the hand Gekai offered him in a firm shake, thankful that it was her more normal left hand. Now that she was closer Naruto also notice that she lacked the slightly maniacal gleam that Victor had in his eyes, instead she looked more calculating only without any coldness.
"Nice to meet you, hope Victor isn't being too much trouble." The woman said her soft smoky voice at odds with her flamboyant appearance.
Naruto could only give her a blank expression that could even be seen through his mask, making Gekai give a quiet sigh before noticing that the giant was still by the tent. Turning around with a frown she shouted out in a slightly louder voice that probably only just carried over to the monstrous thing. "Hey Chunk get your arse over here!"
The moment Gekai spoke the now identified 'Chunk' started slowly moving towards them, each step making a loud thud and leaving an indent in the ground, the beast making strange groaning noises as it moved.
It came to a stop right behind the grey haired woman, but didn't say anything. After a moment he opened his mouth but instead of speaking, a large glob of drool dripped out and fell right on top of Gekai's head.
"Chunk what the hell! I told you to stop doing that! This is the third time today and I am tired of washing my hair every few minutes!" The woman said her face screw up in irritation as she gave the beast a light punch to the thigh, which was incidentally the highest point the woman could reach on the beast.
Naruto blinked slightly in surprise at seeing what had just happened, before a look of understanding crossed his masked face.
'Well…that explained her hair.' Naruto thought in amusement.
Blinking as he watched the older woman start yelling at the giant Chunk, Naruto turned to Victor only to see him giggling behind his hands.
"What the hell is that thing?"
"Who Chunk? He's one of Gekai's 'Corpse Dolls' or as they are sometimes called 'Abominations', it's one of my Clan's unique Bloodline Jutsu. Basically you build a body out of spare parts, then use a fuck load of Lightening Chakra to give it a jumpstart.
They aren't the smartest and it would be an insult to wood to say they were as dumb as it, but if you know what you're doing they are strong and come in handy."
Naruto wasn't sure what to think about that, though when he turned back to look at Gekai, only to see her still yelling at Chunk for drooling on her head he couldn't stop the sweat drop from running down the back of his head.
Looking more closely Naruto used the ability he had decided to call his 'Death Sense', as he used it he could feel the Souls and life force of everything around him, looking at the hulking Chunk he could see that it contained life, but upon closer examination he could see nothing resembling a Soul contained within it.
Blinking Naruto stop using his sensory ability and instead looked at the monstrosity before him in shock, he had never before seen a living being without a Soul, and he was glad as for someone like Naruto it was incredibly unnerving.
Eventually deciding to just ignore it for now, Naruto turned back to Furui who had been standing quietly for the last few minutes with a smile on his face, as he watched the ongoing shenanigans of the Outcasts new and old occasionally chuckling in amusement as he heard Gekai's smoky voice raised in annoyance as she shouted at the oblivious Chunk.
"So ermm… Furui where can I set up my tent? I have one stored in a sealing scroll so I just need to set it up and I'm good." Naruto said a slightly nervous note in his voice as he saw Furui turn to look at him; it wasn't Furui that made him nervous, no his nervousness was caused by the potential that he might be rejected.
The old man took a moment to think about it, before nodding to himself and walking off in a seemingly random direction, Naruto following along behind him.
"If I remember correctly, there is a space between Hodan and Clementine's tents in the northern section of the camp. I'm sure you will be able to get along just fine with both, though I should warn you Hodan is also known as Cannonball around here… and Clementine… well you'll see."
Not sure he understood but still willing to follow, Naruto gave a quick wave to Victor who would no doubt be staying with his Clansman, one of the few dozen left in existence or at least that was what Victor had said. With a quick shout of 'see you later' to Victor Naruto turned on his heel and ran to catch up with the surprisingly spry old blind man.
...
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