7 Chapter 06
During the three days of waiting our team decided to pass more time with our current leader because of how little time we had to get to know each other better.
And even if we know we won't be a team once we finish the exam, he still helped us learn some tricks, mostly how to fight against sword users.
This however made me remember Sephiroth sword called Masamune which is pretty cool looking, maybe I should find myself a sword or craft one during my incoming travel.
So I asked him to show me some of his moves with his tantō, mostly for reference because I will not use the same sword style as him.
And I understood why he would be named White Fang of the Leaf in the future, each time he swings his sword a white streak of chakra occurs following the strike.
*Exam day*
Like our proctor said we grouped up near the entrance of the Forest of Death and only once all the six teams left were here did she appear
"Great everyone is here now listen closely I will not repeat myself." she announced while doing hand signs before summoning a single Ninken
"This is your objective, I already summoned four Ninken who scattered in the training ground looking almost the same as this one." she said while petting it before continuing
"You will have to find one of them and take off this token hanging around their neck before reaching the tower at the center of the forest. A token will allow a team of three to pass this stage. You have five days starting from...Now."
Five days to find one out of four dogs in such a forest...I wonder how the Sannin will do in this one, they do not have summons yet and do not specialize in sensing.
As I was lost in my thinkings I felt a hand on my shoulder, Dai's who suddenly said "Come on Yuichi! We have to go too, everyone already left as soon as she said the last word!"
"Alright guys let's go, and you don't need to be this hasty...If she gave us five days to do it a couple of minutes behind won't change a thing." I answered
And while we were moving from tree to tree I proposed what area we should target first.
Because all teams started from the same entrance they will mostly search in this part of the forest.
As we entered from the west side of the tower, their searching area should not reach the east side of the tower because it would mean going behind the finish line.
And they would not risk losing so much time going in the opposite direction instead of searching where they are at the moment.
This means that we will be the only one in the area in case there is one of the dogs thus avoiding potential confrontation.
I think that this stage has a hidden meaning to it...After all, when being part of a reconnaissance or sensing ninja team you usually should avoid conflict with the other party.
Giving us five days could also demonstrate our capacity to 'survive' in a difficult area by hunting food, finding water, and find a proper place to sleep.
[A/N: Water creation from Jutsu is drinkable or not? Does it contain the minerals or is it only H2O? I could say it depends on the user's wish...]
I also want to subtly use a way to find one of the dogs once we reach the east side of the forest.
I could use my Tenseigan to find them because they should have chakra, but I want to try something to see if I can track things without any trace of chakra whatsoever.
Our objective for today is to at least reach the river which kind of cut the forest in two from the north side to the south so we can camp around there for the night.
This means that we need to travel around 10km (~6,2 miles) in a single day, not an issue for me or Dai but I can't say the same for Shikuro.
After all the terrain is horrendous to travel through, all trees do not have the same height and their branches are just all around the place as well as thick leaves making us go up and down and take some detour when it's too thick to pass-through.
And walking is not a good option too, I can see from up there the number of weird flora living near the ground from time to time.
*Several hours later*
"Alright, I can see the river from there just keep up for a bit longer!" I said to my teammates
"YOSH! I was getting hungry after all this traveling!" said Dai without even breaking a sweat
"Go to the river and fill those gourds Dai, me, and Shikuro will find a decent place to set up our camp." I said while tossing three good-sized gourds at him
I don't want us to just be near the river because it is lacking cover, as we are not yet to the other side of the tower we could have some unwanted visitors and a lack of options.
And a great spot was luckily not far from here, a rocky terrain encased by trees and bushes with a malleable area at the center.
After some hand signs, I was able to mold the ground into a pseudo cave big enough for us to sleep in and have dinner.
"You can rest for a bit Shikuro, once you can move a bit could you bring rocks and branches so we can have a proper fire for the night? You should not need to go that far from here." I said to him while he was already completely flattened the face on the ground agreeing to my request judging from his weak thumbs up
"I will go fetch Dai and we will hunt some animal for tonight then go back here." I finally announced before going out of the newborn cave
*Some times later*
"Shikuro we're back with food and water." I said holding the gourds and some fishes
"And we even got a big catch! Look how big it is!" let out Dai holding a massive boar on his shoulders
As we entered the cave we could see that Shikuro did shape a campfire but also made three sorts of bed with leaves he entangled.
"...I thought you were exhausted? To make each of us a sort of mattress in such a small amount of time you amaze me." I asked him with a little surprised face
"...I am exhausted but sleeping on the ground would not help." he responded in his usual low voice
Well if you have enough dexterity and energy to make one why not, but with wood release I could make you something better...Soon I will show it to others.
"Let's start the fire then." I said while creating a little spark of fire from one of my finger to lit up the dried wood
I then proceed to take the gourds and boil the water to make it safer to drink.
You know you needed to drink when you can feel the water going down your throat making you feel good.
And the smell from roasting the boar is nice too...But we ate the fish first because the boar is big enough for us to keep a portion for tomorrow.
Also to not get detected by the smoke I made numerous holes in the surface so it will disperse faster in the air and not make a big column of smoke.
I also placed some seals that will warn me in case of someone approaching during our bedtime.
Not that any of the Genin team will find us but if the Shinobi secretly looking after us see how cautious we are then it should only be a bonus for us.
The next day after a night worth of sleep we departed still in the direction of the east side of the tower to start our missing dog investigation.
Dai was the one carrying what we had left of meat as well as the gourds with a handmade backpack.
We proceeded for half a day until we reached far enough inside the forest.
"Let's start our tracking from here, I want to try something to find him wait for me a bit please." I declared
"Ok!" "Sure." they acknowledged
They are good friends that is for sure, never doubting me.
I disappeared from their sights by getting behind a tree a bit further, I then closed my eyes and placed my hand on a tree and once I was in a completely calm state it started fusing together while roots started to emerge from my feet spreading underground.
While in this state I could sense the surroundings differently, I could feel the life force spreading in each tree in a radius pulsing at me, I could hear the whistling of the leaves as strange whispers for me, I could even see what the trees were seeing.
I could perceive everything nature around me perceived.
Before getting too intoxicated by this feeling I gently asked them if they recently saw a dog with a special token hanging from his collar.
What appeared in my mind seemed to be the memories of the trees that displayed the appearance of one of the dogs we are looking for.
It was a really strange feeling, it's like my vision passed from tree to tree to show me where he was going until he found a place to hide.
'Thank you' I mentally said to the nature surrounding me making the leaves rustle more than usual, as I opened my eyes severing my intimate connection with nature itself.
What a unique experience it was, I always felt that there was more to the wood release than what we knew about it.
I returned to my two teammates who just sat on large branches a tree away and said "I found one of them, he should be hiding an hour or so from here once nighttime comes."
"Do we set up an ambush?" asked me Shikuro
"Indeed, but because it's a dog we are ambushing we need to cover our smell with something...Do you have a type of insect living in this environment with a certain odor it could secrete?" I announced
"I do but...It is a smell humans tend to dislike." he responded
"This will do, it seems the dog roam in a large area before going back to his hiding spot each night so unless I sense him when we go there we should be able to capture him."
"YOSH! Let's go then!" let out Dai
*Some times later*
"Found it! He's staying in that hole at night." I said pointing to an opened space beneath a tree
"Do you want me to cover us now?" Shikuro asked me
"Let's do this first then I will hide us until he appears." I answered him as he raised his arms and a sort of stink bug made it out
And once the insect secreted something around us we started to smell how bad it was.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SMELL! IT IS WORSE THAN MY PO-" Dai said before I interrupted him by putting my hand on his mouth
"We don't need to know this part Dai...We will wash this odor away later don't worry." I reassured him
The odor is indeed hard to bear for humans, strangely enough, it does not affect beasts the same thus covering our scent.
Now all I had to do was to dig a space for each of us around his hiding spot, while Shikuro uses a Shōkaichū to detect the arrival of the dog.
I was good at hiding the alterations I made while digging thanks to my mastery of earth release so for him nothing would have changed in between.
Now we just have to wait...While stinking.
And when the sun was nowhere to be seen I saw Shikuro doing a hand sign to warn us he was approaching.
I hence closed my eyes and could see him with the Tenseigan, a dog-shaped chakra at least.
I then started a countdown with my fingers
3...
2...
1...
NOW!
And at the same time, we suddenly got out of the ground surrounding the dog and in a fast assault I snatched the token from his collar while Dai immobilized him
"WHAF THE?!" was all the dog could say as he was pinned down by Dai
"Thanks for the token pup." I said while playing with it between my fingers
"I did not expect anywoof to reach this side of the forest during the 2nd day..." said the dog still surprised
"Whatever, we can finally clean ourselves then rest here for the night, we don't need to be hasty since we got one of the four token anyway." I said ignoring him
"FINALLY! I can't stand this odor any longer!" loudly said Dai as the dog suddenly 'poofed' out sad to be ignored
As we weren't near any water I created a primitive shower for each of us using earth and water release.
And once we were clean we ate what was left of the boar then nicely slept.
*The next day*
We may have overslept a bit as the sun was already up for a while but who cares.
We moved hurriedly in the direction of the tower to finally end this annoying stage.
Once we arrived near the entrance of the tower we couldn't see anyone but one thing stands out: a dog statue with a big arrow and the words 'Insert token here' pointing to the statue's mouth.
'Why do I get a gacha feeling with this'
Before getting horrendous flashback I inserted the token where I was supposed to thus opening the main door revealing the same purple-haired mature woman who gave us the mission three days ago
"Congratulation, you are the 2nd team to pass this test." she said in a calm voice
'Second huh?' I thought while we followed her to the main hall.
Then I suddenly heard a voice I did not miss for three days "Oh you guys only finished the stage now? How lame~"
It was none other than Jiraiya with quite the smug face as he talked to us from the upper floor
"You three found a Ninken before today?" I asked
"Of course! With my great sense, I could detect him no later than the 2nd day!" he proudly said
But a female voice cut his happiness short "What do you mean 'great sense'?"
"Uh-huh...Hey Tsunade can you not talk about it pretty please?" Jiraiya pleaded
Tsunade just smirked at him and teased "Maybe~ if you stop trying to peek at me! Staying on alert and stopping you before you can see anything is getting on my nerves."
"Between my pride or my life goal I'm sorry but I will decline as I am a man of culture!" he replied while gently closing his eyes and nodding to himself
"You!" was all Tsunade said before punching away Jiraiya
"We got the token thanks to Jiraiya but his method was...Disgraceful to say the least." a calm voice said to our left
"How so?" I asked the now near Orochimaru
"While we moved around the forest he kept pestering us to stop for a bit to...pee."
Oh I know where this is going
"And so he got down on the ground and did it on a bush, suddenly we heard a scream and he got bitten you know where by the angry Ninken." he finished explaining here because nobody wants to hear the rest of this story
Dai and I started to laugh hard at Jiraiya while he turned as red as a tomato once the truth was out
Shikuro just seemed too depleted to join us in our enjoyment sadly.
"Well, getting 2nd but to the price of your capacity to use your thing seems like a good enough trade for me." I said making him instantly go pale and run off somewhere surely to check if it was still fine
Being friends with him made me realize how he could have been a Shōnen protagonist if the story was about his life and not Naruto's.
Quite the plot armor...But it won't save you if we face each other at the finals.
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Author's note:
Do you guys want me to give you the auxiliary chapter showing you all the kekkei that will exist in my fanfiction?
Or just make an auxiliary chapter where I add the one I created once they appear in the story (this will delete previous comments on it) even though I may not use all of them.
