Aligning the Stars

Vine Blues

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After a few minutes they headed for the last ingredient dangling in the canyon called the blue Genie Vines ...

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"Whoa ... someone really pissed Cassy off." Naruko frowned at the large crater next to the very edge of the canyon, which was very unstable now.

Shino frowned and glanced at the medics, "Yes ... it's very unstable." The bug user scooped the blonde to carry her bridal style.

Naruko yelped and pouted, "Hey, you guys said I could walk!"

"Walk not jump or run on unstable ground. It has only been about two days since you were bitten so you can't rush it." Neji said as they went over to the edge of the canyon and their jaws dropped as they took in the scope of the sight before them.

The canyon was huge and they found it difficult to see the bottom. It was amazing to see the several different layers of the earth going down the canyon wall, but what really caught everyone's attention were the several different sized islands floating around. Several small ones were very close to the edge, but the biggest forest covered island was a good distance away and was slowly rising upwards.

Kiba leaned in to see closer, "How are they floating?"

"Most of the time it's because of a buildup of magic. That's probably why Neji and Hinata couldn't see them with their Byakugans." Naruko commented as she nuzzled into Shino's neck making the bug user blush, "We need to look under the islands."

"I'll get us closer." Gaara said as he warped his sand to create a flying island of his own and the 8 people with a large dog floated down to the other islands. "Out of curiosity, how does the magic get built up?"

Naruko tilted her head cutely and adjusted her glasses as she tried to remember, "Ummm ... training grounds that build up far too much magic from constant spell casting and graveyards for magical creatures."

"Graves?" Kiba shivered at the morbid fact.

"Yep, I think the biggest islands are dragon graveyards or birthing grounds if I remember right. Maybe that large island has dragons." Naruko pondered out loud not realizing that she was making the ninjas nervous as they descended below the highest, but smallest islands. Neji, Tenten, Kiba, Hinata and Shikamaru kept theirs eyes out for any fire breathing lizards flying around in the sky. Thankfully they didn't see anything like that of the creatures they just moments ago thought were a myth.

"Do you see any of the vines you need Naruko?" Tenten asked as they finally started seeing the underside of the islands several of which had lots of roots and vines hanging from the unseen side.

"That right there is Genie vine, but it's not blue." Naruko pointed up at a very long and curly silver vine with white flowers every few feet. Each flower had three long petals that curled at the tips and long spiraling red stamen. "From what I read before coming to this race a real blue Genie vine has a blue stem and the flowers have blue stamen."

Shino nodded, "That makes it easy, but we will most likely have to go much lower to find one."

"A number of teams have already been through here by now. It is day 7 after all ... everyone would've only gone as low as they had to before coming back up in order to move as fast as possible." Neji said.

Naruko's eyes widened, "Oh that's right. We will have to go much lower if we want to find one. Maybe it would save time if we just went straight to the biggest and lowest islands over there." She suggested as she pointed to the biggest island with the forest ride on it.