Journey of Desires

- During these weeks that I've been with you... I've felt a completely different side of life, the calm Kilia that turns into something like an owl that sees a mouse when she sees someone cute, she... Calmed me down, helped me figure out what I didn't understand, all these technologies, refrigerators, stoves. I like spending time with her, I like that she treats me like a friend. She's my first friend, after all.

The girl, with her head down, said these words rather quietly, and Ban decided not to interrupt her, listening attentively to what she wanted to convey. Lately, this situation is the most unusual in his understanding, and being in it, he felt a little better, and there was a desire to listen and find out what she wants to do.

- Naruto, I haven't talked much with her, she always comes to you more, when you said that we are similar in our desires, I became interested, and how similar? But when I saw that she really changes completely for the sake of her cozy life, setting goals for herself time after time, and creating plans to become stronger, I remembered the day when we met and how, without realizing it, I first decided to fight for my freedom. Then I realized that we really are similar in some way, and I am very glad that she really succeeds and your ideas are becoming reality.

Hikari stood in the same pose and continued her words, and while Ban was listening to her, he began to take out the especially irritating needles of the Spruce from his body, which were very difficult to leave the body due to regeneration, to her surprise, they were able to damage not only the skin but also the muscles, apparently this tree is not ordinary, but chakra-conducting and because of Yachihoko's aura, it somehow hardened, managing to break through Ban's natural defense.

- I didn't have time to study Hinata, but judging by the words and reactions of the others, she is also a good person... And you Ban...

This time, Hikari already raised her head, looking straight into Ban's eyes and slightly raising the volume of her voice, making it more solid.

- You... The first few days you scared me, your prank left a mark on me for a while, and a little later I realized that you are just a masochist fool who wants to find someone who can give you a good beating. In recent days, I realized that you are like this for a reason, but your mood is transmitted to others, you most likely did not notice, but because you sit sullen all the time, Naruto often can't find a place for herself, and Hinata, despite all her shyness and the situation as a whole, came up to me to ask what happened, I don't know why she came to me in the first place, but this happened. There's nothing to say about your sister, although it's clear that she's clearly used to you like this, just like she's used to being a slacker, but even she's affected by it, yesterday there was a situation when Hinata looked clearly cute, and usually Kilia would react brightly to something like that, but yesterday nothing happened, as if she was lost in some thoughts and didn't even notice Hinata's cuteness.

Listening to her words, Ban felt a little sick, of course he understands that it's mostly not his fault, but still, knowing about his recent states is pretty unpleasant. But in her next words, Hikari raised her voice quite a bit and began to gradually approach Ban.

- These girls, my friends, are the first people dear to me in this damn Shinobi world, and the first people after my parents who treat me well!

At that moment, she approached Ban at a distance of about ten meters, and the Sharingan Tomoe began to spin in her eyes, slowly turning into a Mangekyou drawing.

- And even you! Although we didn't communicate that much, Kilia told me how much time and effort you spent on my search, told about everything, the first thing you thought when you got here wasn't that there were a lot of opponents and new places that would help you with your desires, no ! The first thing you said to your sister after arriving in this world was "We need to help Hikari", she remembered these words well, after all, this is the first thing you said when you were approaching the city, right?

Having already found herself at a stretch of five meters, she stopped, and then covered herself with Yachihoko's aura, shining with chakra and lightning.

- And since your bad condition makes people dear to me bad... I will forcefully bring back the real you!

Ban, of course, understood where everything was leading from the very beginning, but listening to her monologue, he really thought hard. He felt bad for Naruko and Hinata, yes, but not to say that it was critical, after all, in his life he had met many people with whom he had communicated and traveled for weeks and then never seen them... But still, realizing that he was doing quite a lot of harm not only to new fellow travelers but also to his sister. The person with whom they had been in this world since birth, the person with whom they were spiritually connected, he hung a little thinking about everything that had happened recently.

In the world of the seven deadly sins, when the curses lying on the souls of the brother and sister first became noticeable, when it became clear that for Kiliya there were no particularly terrible consequences, but for Ban everything was much worse, his sister was the first to start looking for what exactly his curse was and how it could be fixed, she pulled him to different places and gave him different

As a result, it turned out that they both have two parts of the curse, one makes Kilia feel a huge surge of emotions when she sees something cute, while Ban experiences this surge due to exploring new cities, beautiful places, and architecture. This part appeared to them as a sign of what they lacked in purgatory, Ban was extremely tired of the same types of Hell, and Kilia really wanted to see something cute and pleasing to the eye, yet rocks, sand, flames, lava and monsters did not something that can be considered cute. The second side of their curse was something that was in abundance, on the contrary, due to constant games with each other in whatever board games were possible, Kiliya became slightly addicted to them, as a result, playing almost every day with everyone she could reach. And Ban was constantly involved in battles when they were in purgatory, as a result, he received a lot of adrenaline from them, the battles were often difficult and dangerous, and as a result, he wants to fight and receive a challenge from strong opponents. The only difference is that for Kilia, any games with any person are enough, and her mood does not spoil like Ban's, but for her brother, finding an opponent to match and even fighting them constantly is quite difficult.

They had already tried to fight each other before, but they cannot fight each other at all, not only does a battle with someone you do not want to harm not cause such an adrenaline rush for Ban, but the enemy has the same level of invulnerability and survivability as Ban himself, and in terms of direct combat, he is even weaker. As a result, these battles helped only the first five times, and then there was no point in them.

Kilia also tried to make something like a magical obstacle course, it was so dangerous that Ban repeatedly lost his limbs and even his head in it, but this only helped temporarily, the sensations become boring, everything was repeated with Meliodos, with Escanor, the battles helped only temporarily. As a result, they came to the conclusion that the curse requires new sensations, both from battles and from previously unseen places.

True, these thoughts that had flown through his head rather quickly were instantly and unexpectedly knocked out... Literally knocked out.

Hikari, under Yachihoko's reinforcement, has statistics approximately equal to Ban in his normal state, of course, inferior in endurance.

Ban flew back to the same tree, but this time crashed into its trunk, leaving a dent in the bark, it seems that it really is chakra-conducting, and Hikari unconsciously leaves a trace of his chakra on the enemy when he strikes.

- You want battles and thrills, I could understand that. Why didn't you ask me to fight you then?

Having said this phrase, the girl decided not to wait for an answer, but folded her fingers in the form of a concentration seal and shouted "Enton: Flame Stream", as a result of which a clot of fire resembling a fireball was directed towards Ban, but due to the fact that it did not hold its shape like the named fire elemental technique, it could rather be called a black blot.

Enton, also known as the element of black flame, is essentially just the highest level of Amaterasu control, and in the canon, Sasuke could boast of such. Later in the game, Hikari herself was shown, where she was able to control the black flame, for example, creating a vortex of Amaterasu around Boruto, which absorbed the fire techniques of the Uchiha clan members, and then, spinning into a spiral around Uzumaki, disappeared.

Now the black flame after it appeared in a formless version of a blot, took the form of three black arrows that flew from different directions at Ban, as a result, all hit the target since the man did not dodge... Nothing was heard from him at all, which alerted the Uchiha.

The fire spread to the tree gradually starting to spread upward, while this was happening, Hikari saw Ban's silhouette emerging from the black fire.

Completely covered in fire from chest to crown, from his whole clothes only his pants remained, and part of the sleeve on his right arm, which fell to the ground a moment later due to the fact that there was nothing to hold on to, he stopped in front of the Uchiha.

The girl canceled the flame on Ban's body, which left a charred Ban visible, who was quickly recovering to his standard form, but there was a fundamental difference between him and the Ban she had seen a minute earlier... He was smiling like a small child who had been given a huge Lego set, generally happily and in anticipation, and in the background stood Spruce, who had already turned into a huge black torch, which was most likely already visible at a great distance.

***

While in the room, Naruko and Hinata were waiting for Kiliya to return, and while she was gone, they decided to discuss their impressions of exploring the city.

They didn't have to do this for long, though, since the previously mentioned girl had returned to the room. Her order only took about ten minutes, since all she had to do was go down to the first floor and arrange with the cooks and the girl working at the hotel to deliver dinner by seven o'clock in the evening.

Kilia entered the room and was about to approach the two not yet kunoichi, but as she passed near the window she noticed that there was a lot of noise on the street, curious about what was happening, she looked out the window, but seeing only people rushing, she did not understand anything. Well, the best option in such a situation is to ask those who know what's going on, as a result, she shouted out this question while on the second floor of the hotel, which made her easy to hear, and the answer came from an excited man who was walking in the direction of the eastern gate of the city.

- There is a fire in the forest near the eastern gate, a two-hundred-year-old tree that stood there is covered in black fire, and people are afraid that the fire will cover the entire forest, but judging by the color of the flames, this is a Ninja battle, and the residents are going to find out what is going on there, some have already headed to the capital in the hope of bringing as many Shinobi as possible to help.

The capital, as it turned out, is only twenty kilometers from the current city, and for a ninja this distance will take about an hour if moving in a group. So Kilia has about two hours to find out what is going on and why Hikari most likely started a fire, the chance that Itachi was in this place and decided to destroy the forest is too small to consider.

- Naruto, Hinata! Follow me, we need to find out what they are doing there.

***

A little later in the Sound Village.

- Orochimaru-sama, Kaido arrived with a report on surveillance of top priority targets.

- Let him in.

Orochimaru's hissing voice gave his consent, and when the Jonin of the Sound Village Kaido entered the Kage's office, Orochimaru turned his full attention to him. The man correctly understood the look and began to report.

- We were able to find traces of targets on the border of the Land of Fire, having gone after them, we went through the entire Land of Rain, as a result, their traces led us to the Land of Earth, and yesterday afternoon we received information about a fire in the forest near the city of Bakahudo, what is unusual is that the fire was due to black flames, clearly from technology, having decided to study the situation, we made our way into the city, as a result, I accidentally discovered our targets heading towards the local hotel, I was sent to deliver the report, and the rest of the group continues to monitor the targets.

- Excellent, ke-ke-ke.

Smiling Orochimaru let out a rather creepy laugh and told the Jonin that he was free to go and rest, no further tracking would be necessary, Orochimaru personally went to the land of Earth.