I myself had been to a few of these merchants displays and I was usually very disappointed. Most of the beasts they had were ordinary creatures that had the tiniest chance of becoming chakra beasts and thus not worth my time or money. A sensitivity to chakra didn’t mean that a beast could become a chakra beast despite that being the primary indicator that was used to determine it. Capturing actual chakra beasts however was a tricky and usually dangerous business so these merchants rarely risked it and were thus lacking in good quality beasts.-
That said the merchant Teuchi told me was currently in town was one I was familiar with and knew for a fact did try and capture chakra beasts since the risk had an equally great reward if she succeeded. I leisurely made my way to the bazar area that these sort of merchants occupied in the village all the time and ignored most of the ones trying to trick me out of my money. Not to say these merchants were scammers as that was a fast way to get put in a early grave when you dealt with ninjas as your clientele.-
It was just that the hype they tried to peddle their wares with rarely stood up to reality even if they did operate in a manner like advertised. That said I did stop at a few places that my senses found something moderately interesting in. One such place was an herbal trader who had a ginseng that was attracting an above average amount of natural energy. The man tried to sell me some wolf grass or other expensive herbs but my interest was only in that ginseng. Another place I stopped was a traveling “antiquities dealer” that was in fact just a grave robber for abandoned tombs.-
The reason i stopped at such a disreputable place was that he had jeweled egg that he clearly didn’t realize held a sealed unborn chakra beast. The seals were frankly ingenious as the unborn beast was prevented from hatching but fed chakra and natural energy from the air to improve it’s talent and power upon birth. Basically the person who made this set of seals was artificially creating a powerful chakra beast but judging from the jewels on the shell had lost the egg or had it taken from them before they could claim their prize.-
I had not idea how long the seals had been in place and thus feeding the unborn beast but I did know where the egg came from, Uzushiogakure or the village hidden in the whirlpools. In other words this jewel egg had been taken from the grave of someone from the now long dead Uzumaki clan village. The peddler tried to spew some bullshit about where he got it to upsell the price but I flat out pointed out the identifiers that he missed and then gave him a generous but firm price for the egg.-
Finally though I reached the beast merchant and saw the tomboy woman with short black hair and muscular physique sitting back smoking a cigar silently. “Boy! I had worried I’d have to track you down after hearing you were outta the village!” she said with a hearty laugh when she saw me walk up.
“Just got back today in fact, hope you have something good saved up for me Toge.” I said not surprised at the masculine way she spoke.
“You’re lucky your taste in beasts is all inclusive as I just so happen to have a powerful one that I can’t sell since no one else wants it, not for lack of trying mind you.” she said as she got up and walked over to a metal cage with a black cloth over it.
She pulled the cloth away to reveal what was in the cage and I admit that I was halfway tempted to think she was messing with me as it was a sheep of all things. You know the fluffy things that are universally know as prey items, yeah one of those.
“Don’t go letting this soft and harmless look fool you this fucker damn near killed me to capture. Got this weird ability to turn things it steps on explosive, bastards fast too. It’s why I got chakra suppression bands on it since I don’t want it to blow up my cart.” Toge said seriously while the sheep was perfectly calm and acting like any normal one as it ate some food pellets from a bowl.
Chakra suppression bands were as the name implied bands that were made specifically to deprive a chakra user from their chakra via special seals. I personably didn’t like the things because they messed with my senses as I couldn’t get an accurate read on someone’s chakra if they were wearing one. That said I wasn’t doubting Toge at all as even with the bands on it the sheep had a heavy concentration of chakra near it’s feet.
“You want to come with me?” I asked the sheep and it paused mid chew and then nodded. “Alright I’ll get you in a moment and get those bands off you but you can’t go blowing things up understand?” I said with a smile and the sheep nodded with a reluctant look at Toge.
“You never cease to amaze me with the critters kid, I’ll sell it to you for fifty thousand this time even if it’s worth more just to get it outta my hair. Also don’t think I didn’t notice that look ya bastard, you were planning to blow up my shit weren’t you?” She said while glaring at the sheep that just snorted and looked away.
I paid Toge and had my new beast follow me out of the market as I ignored the looks I got since it was a sheep of all things.
“Is that a sheep?” Shizune asked with a confused expression after she found me on the street.
“More or less.” I said with a shrug.
“Why do you have a sheep?” she asked still very much confused.
“It’s a chakra beast and I bought it for my collection. Apparently it can make anything it steps on explosive, sounded like a useful ability to try and copy.” I said honestly.
“Like paper tags?” she asked surprised.
I just shrugged again “No idea since I haven’t tested it yet, speaking of want to come with?” I asked and she nodded.
Toge wasn’t messing around when she said it was fast as it was able to keep up with us after we started jogging which for shinobi at our level meant we were moving quite quickly. Eventually though we got to an empty training ground and I got to see it’s chakra ability in action and I was not disappointed. The way the ability worked was actually quite simple but was equally useful and ingenious. Basically the sheep molded it’s chakra into a fire nature and then left a “stamp” where it put down it’s hooves that acted like a sort of landmine as the chakra went dormant until triggered somehow. The explosions were pretty strong too as they were about the equivalent of a grade 1 paper tag that might as well be a frag grenade.
