The Forest of Death - 4

"Hey can we stop for a minute?" Naruto asked, stopping in his tracks. Ahead of him Gaara and Haku also stopped, each of them offering the blonde a questioning look.

"Naruto-kun, I thought we'd agreed to travel for the first 48 hours without stopping." Haku recalled, he himself not trying to show any fatigue.

"Yeah I know," Naruto answered, a small frown on his face, "I have to pee."

"Then hurry," Gaara folded his arms and sighed, expecting something as trivial from Naruto, "We can't afford delays."

"Wait," Haku didn't let him leave right away, "To prevent any ambushes we'll all speak a common password."

"A password?" Naruto didn't understand his reasoning.

"Yes, when you come back we'll ask…" Haku quickly thought up a question only Naruto could answer, "What is the name of the village we first met in, alright?"

"Whatever you say, Haku-kun." The blonde gave him a sheepish grin before turning to search the undergrowth for a good spot to relieve himself. Glad for a moment of rest, Haku leaned against the nearest tree, wondering how Gaara kept up so well with Naruto even with the extra weight of his gourd.

'It is merely a testament to how much stronger he has become,' Haku thought, taking a deep breath, 'Neither he or Naruto seem to be tired yet. When did I become such a burden?'

Again, he was left to ponder how he had begun to lag behind the progress of his teammates. Taking Jiraiya and Gaara's advice before the start of the exam a week earlier, Haku had gone to train with Lee's team in hopes of improving his taijutsu.

Neji seemed a bit too preoccupied training with Tenten to offer him any training that didn't involve getting all of his tenketsu sealed. Lee and Gai, on the other hand, had taught him some basics in the short time they could.

He was still sore from their rigorous training, Haku was surprised to admit. He had a low tolerance for pain and very little muscle mass, so Gai didn't hesitate to tell him he was appalled of how frail 'young Haku-kun' was, and then proceeded to toughen him up by having Lee spar with him.

Haku was glad when it was over.

Lee, as a sparring partner, put both Gaara and Naruto to shame. And although Haku did improve drastically from his previous skill level, he couldn't quite compare his physical strength to either that of his teammates'.

The dark haired boy sighed aloud, drawing a curious look from his red haired friend.

Gaara could tell without even having to ask that Haku was under a lot of stress. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing either. He knew that Haku tended to work better under pressure.

After a minute Naruto had returned, wearing a goofy look of relief, "Ah! That's better!"

Gaara snorted and Haku frowned at him, not understanding his pithy behavior.

"Password?" Haku asked it on reflex and was surprised by Naruto's answer.

"Hn? Oh. Konoha!"

In the next instant, the imposter found himself trapped in a coffin of sand, which then hurled him through the air and slammed him full-force into a tree. The pop of his dislocating jaw was audible as his head hit, and Haku shook his head as the henge fell and revealed an injured and cross-eyed Grass ninja.

He fell to the ground unconscious and Gaara, with no guilt of any kind, searched him for a scroll. Haku was even further astonished when Gaara found one.

"When he was listening in he should've been more cautious," The dark haired boy pointed out as Gaara handed him the Earth scroll that the Grass nin had with him, "What luck!"

Naruto arrived a moment later, looking flustered, "Uh...some guy jumped me when I was going! Then he ran off when he found out I didn't have the scroll," He frowned at the knocked out ninja at the base of a nearby tree, "Oh, never mind, you got him."

His teammates could only chuckle in amusement, not expecting it to be so easy.

The sun began to lower in the sky and the last trickling beams of light filtered through the canopy of the dense forest. Team 2 had decided to scrap their plan after Haku began showing signs of slowing and they found a place to rest beside a small stream.

"We've got a Heaven and an Earth scroll now, and it's only day one!" Naruto was thrilled with their good fortune, "We'll have no problem with this exam, for sure!"

"We can't start getting overconfident now, Naruto-kun. We still have to reach the tower in four days," Haku pointed out, "Hm...some food would be nice too..."

"Then we go fishing!" Naruto resolved, referring to the bubbling stream behind them, "Come on! The sooner we eat the better!"

The blonde moved to the water's edge, trying to catch sight of any prey. Eventually he was assisted in his endeavor by an equally hungry Gaara. Haku also decided to help a few minutes later, catching the most fish due to his Kekkei Genkai. He merely levitated the sections of water that the fish generally swam in and let his teammates pick them off.

A short while later, the three boys sat contentedly around a fire, finished eating.

"I still like ramen better..." Naruto decided, stretching, "But now I think that fish isn't that bad."

Gaara smothered the dying flames of the cooking fire with sand, not wanting to create smoke that could attract other ninja. Haku sat next to him, feeling better with a full stomach.

"We should collect rations for the next few days while we can," Haku suggested, trying to form a new plan, "That way we can stop less for food."

"That's a good idea, Haku-kun," Naruto agreed after a lazy burp, then dropped to his back, "Hm...I'm gonna take a nap now."

Rather than sitting idly, Gaara stood and collected the canteens each of his teammates had with them, "I'm getting water. You should go now if you want to find more things we can eat."

Haku nodded and then departed to search for other edible wildlife.

Naruto, predictably, hadn't moved an inch. He was too full from all the food he ate. If their luck persisted he could probably sleep it off with sweet dreams of ramen.

Haku, being the most familiar with plant life, was the wisest choice to be sent looking for food. There weren't that many things to find, he was troubled to see. There were nearly as many dangerous plants as there were safe.

Even after ten minutes of picking his way through the undergrowth, he had only gathered a small number of mushrooms and a few leafy plants. They weren't very nourishing but would provide some stamina, if he had read correctly.

Things that they didn't really need he also came across: herbs that were good for burns and cuts he found growing beneath a boulder, and a few budding flowers also had some properties that could help an upset stomach, 'I may have to save this for Naruto-kun later...'

Haku looked ahead in the patch of holly fern he had been picking through, and saw a ninja standing out in the open. A quick glance at the nin's forehead protector notified him it was another Grass nin. This one was also alone.

'It's possible this shinobi is the teammate of the one that Gaara knocked out, possibly trying to retrieve their lost scroll-' Haku's thoughts were sent reeling off into nonsensical babble as he was stuck with a blast of killing intent that left him utterly paralyzed.

He dropped everything that he had gathered for his teammates, and found he was unable to draw his horrified, dark eyes away from the stare of the Grass nin. The stranger stood perfectly still in the same field of ferns.