Buurrrrp!
It was night now, the forest shrouded in darkness. A loud burp echoed through the trees, and at the source, a big bear and three ninjas patted their bulging bellies.
“It was a mistake; we should not have eaten this much during such times,” Itachi said.
“You should have said this before eating that much. I would have taken your share,” Kabuto replied.
“I was talking for all of us,” Itachi emphasized.
“Nah, I’m perfectly fine and could even go for round two!” Kabuto tered.
But there was nothi of the deer, leaving the three hungry ninjas who haden much the entire day after doing so much physical work. The diet of a bear was no joke; it had ed half of the deer, which meant the three of them had devoured the other half.
“You're joking, right? Look at that bulge; you look like a pregnant dy!” Kaida said, pointing at Kabuto’s stomach.
“You’re not in any position to say that either!” Kabuto shot back, patting Kaida’s stomach, which was just as round.
“Hahahaha!”
“That’s enough. It’s been a long day. You guys go and take some rest; I’ll be on night watch,” Itachi said.
“No need, Captain. I’ve covered every dire with motion-sensing seals, so no one will be able to ambush us. Our base is also covered in at least a hundred cealment seals. The array I’ve formed is my best yet. Even though they’re not foolproof, at least no one e will be able to find us for sure,” Kaida said.
“Okay, the’s all get some sleep.”
“Hey, big fellow, go sleep in your cave and catore deer tomorrow, okay?” Kaida said to the bear.
“Guah!” The bear s head excitedly. Kaida dispersed all of his es, and the three of them headed toward the cave Kabuto had created.
“You made stairs?” Itachi asked, surprised.
“Yetting surprised too easily, Captain; he’s done much more than that,” Kaida replied.
Onside, they arrived at a very rge area that had something akin to sofas inside. Kabuto lit a tord pced it on the wall, casting warm light that made the three ses of the cave more visible for Itachi and Kaida, who had activated their Sharingan to see in the dark.
“You’ve put in way too munecessary hard work, Kabuto. A simple cave would have been suffit.”
Kaida gnced around at the effort Kabuto had put into their temporary base. The spacious cave was more than they needed, with makeshift seating that looked fortable. Itachi sighed, a slight smile tugging at his lips.
"You really didn’t have to go this far," Itachi said, shaking his head at the thought of Kabuto over-preparing.
“Like I said, we’ve got three days and no immediate threats,” Kabuto replied, sitting down on one of the stone ‘sofas.’ “Might as well make ourselves fortable.”
Kaida ughed softly. “You never know when we’ll have to sleep in a muddy ditch. So maybe Kabuto has the right idea.”
They settled into the cave, the warm light from the torch casting shadows on the walls. Itachi leaned back, clearly exhausted, while Kaida stretched out on ao.
“We’re well-prepared now,” Kaida said.
“Yeah, but still, sleeping on stone beds isn’t going to be great. I was hoping to find some soft grass or something, but this thorny forest has none,” Kabuto mented.
“Well, I use a shadow e to make mattresses if you guys want,” Kaida offered.
“Absolutely not! Under no circumstances am I going to sleep on you!” Kabuto firmly deed.
“I’ll also pass,” Itachi added.
“As you wish,” Kaida said and made a single shadow e, which transformed into a mattress that he pced in his bed befoing to sleep. Kabuto and Itachi just shook their heads aled oone beds Kabuto had created.
The day, they woke up and headed to the water source Itachi had found to wash up. When they returhe bear was already standing in front of its cave with an even rger bear lyio it this time.
“Good boy! But where do you keep finding these deer?” Kaida asked, as her he, Itachi, nor Kabuto had spotted any deer in the forest.
The bear pois paw toward a distant mountain. “Guah!”
“Oh, no wonder we didn’t find them. Good job!” Kaida excimed and took the deer with him, preparing it in the same way as before.
Just as the deer was about to be fully cooked, he stood up and took out his kunai. “Someone’s ing!” Itachi and Kabuto immediately teheir hands reag for their ons.
Within moments, three figures approached, but seeing the Konoha team, they tensed up as well.
“Oh! It’s you guys. Are you here for revenge?” Kaida asked, just as everyone was ready to attack. But before they could move, Shima, the leader of the Sunagakure team, began speaking.
“Sorry, we were searg for food and arrived here. We don’t want any fight.”
“… …” After a moment of hesitation, Kaida and his team lowered their ons because he could see Tama, the biggest but simplest of the three from the Sunagakure team, looking at the deer with big round eyes.
Since he had activated his Sharingan, he could also see that the three of them were still injured.
“Wait a minute,” Kaida said ao the deer. He then took out a full hind leg, ed it in rge leaves, and gave it to them.
“Since we took your scroll, sider this an apology. Also, let me give you a quick healing.”
The three of them looked at each other, hesitant.
“If I wao, I could easily kill you guys without any schemes; that would be easier for me, so…”
Shima quickly took the food and bowed slightly, not wanting to start a fight.
Kaida then healed the three of them enough so their injuries wouldn’t hiheir movement anymore. After thanking Kaida once more, the three of them left, not just the area but the forest altogether, not wanting to find out what the result of another skirmish between them and the Konoha team would be.
“You didn’t have to do all that,” Kabuto said.
Kaida shrugged. “They’re desperate, and they’re not our enemies right now. Besides, we’ve got enough food. We always hunt more.
Aside from that, they somehow found our base. If they really warouble, they could team up with other teams to gang up on us. Now at least there’s a ce they’ll leave us alone,” Kaida expined.
“The leg will be deducted from your share,” Kabuto got to the main point. At that, both Itachi and the bear heir heads.
‘These fuckers…’ Kaida thought.
---
Meanwhile, further up the valley, Deidara was scowling, his eyes burning with frustration as he stood in front of a mountain. His team had been moving the whole day and night but had only mao obtain one scroll between them. It wasn’t enough. They hree—one for each member.
“Someone already took it!” Deidara growled, g his fists. His temper fred, and his patienapped. “I’m tired of searg like a on sger.”
The locations they got were at opposite ends of Lightning Valley. Due th weather and terrain, it took them much loo reach the sed location, but someone had already taken the sed scroll by then.
His hands formed a rapid set of seals, chakra surging through his body as he smmed his palms into the ground. A deep hole emerged in the mountain, almost reag the bottom.
Theook out a big ball made of white d dumped it in the mountaiing the same step two more times before jumping off. His teammates followed, knowing well what was going to happe.
With a deafening explosion, the entire mountainside bleart in a cloud of dust and rubble. Rocks rained down, and the sheer force of the explosion caused the earth to tremble beh them. When the dust settled, the once-majestic mountain was reduced to a pile of debris, but there was no scroll in sight.
“Tch! Worthless!” Deidara spat in frustration, gring at the destru he had caused.
His teammate sighed, “We still wo more scrolls. Blowing up mountains isn’t going to help us.”
Deidara growled, but he khey were right. They were running out of time, and other teams were already ahead of them.
---
Elsewhere in the valley, teams from various vilges were either struggling or thriving. Some had mao secure two scrolls already, their progress swift and strategic. Others, like Deidara’s team, were still stuck with just one or even zero scrolls, desperately searg the wilderness for ohe tension was mounting as the deadline approached. With only two days remaining, the movement among teams increased.
