After the Rain

Chapter 5: Lost on the Road to Life

Chapter Five – Lost on the Road to Life.

"That's it, Lee! Run...run towards the setting sun!... But don't mess up your hair!" - Might Gai

The sun was shining high up in the sky, but the rays felt like nothing more than an illusion of warmth in the chill winter air. The leaves lay brown on the earth covered ground, and the bushes had turned thorny with branches instead of rich green. It made it uncomfortable to walk through them, but luckily they weren't supposed to leave the trail much during this outing.

Three hours into the race Kakashi was leading the team of three academy students through the woods with his nose in the map. He had refused to let the others see it, and his highest priority was to get the whole ordeal over and done with as soon as possible.

The time traveler was walking next to Ensui who was mostly a calm and aloof person, but today he entertained the younger girl by shooting down flies with his senbon. He had very good aim.

In the meanwhile Shisui walked next to their team leader, not minding the silence as much as Naruto did, but eventually he spoke up. "Kakashi-san, we should probably try to get some food for lunch and dinner, this area still has some nuts on the trees." Shisui suggested carefully after a few hours of silence between them.

Kakashi seemed reluctant to agree but Naruto nodded eagerly. "Yeah! We could also get some fish by the river! We'd have to gather a shit load of nuts to feed all of us!" She said while Shisui chuckled. He'd seen the girl devouring her lunch during breaks.

"Come on Naruto-chan, we'll get some food while they can get a fire running." Suggested Ensui and nodded towards the river not too far away from the path they were following.

"Excuse me, but I'm team leader here. You're supposed to learn how to do these things first, not just run into the river and be taken by the stream." Interrupted Kakashi while crossing his arms in front of him.

"Oh I'm so sorry Kakashi-sensei. What is your command?" Asked Naruto sarcastically. Ensui snorted and Shisui tried very hard not to smile.

"You little… I'm saying that I am in charge of this mission and you should wait to follow my orders." Taking up his kunai and looking towards the river they could hear not far away he said; "Ensui and I will get the fish, you two can sort out the fire. Take the signal flare with you in case something happens. And please do not fire it unless you absolutely have to. And if you do, point it downwards so we only hear the sound and not see the explosion. It's only supposed to be used in case of emergencies and the guards will show up if we fire it up towards the sky. It's the only signal flare they provided so use it with care." He explained while pointing his kunai towards the blond before turning to walk away. Naruto stuck out her tongue at the boy's back while Ensui sent her an apologetic smile before following.

Naruto turned to Shisui instead. "Want to beat them? If we can gather more food and logs than them, then Kakashi will lose!" She said excitedly.

Shisui grinned at Naruto's unconcealed desire to beat their team leader. "You have a bit of a competition streak don't you? Fine, I can start a fire any time with katon jutsu, so let's do something more productive. You should try looking for logs while I'll start on the food hunt." He instructed and then followed Naruto in the opposite direction the others had taken.

Naruto grinned and walked around searching for any dried wood they could use to light a fire. Considering it was winter it was harder than usual, but she still managed to find some logs dry enough.

After half an hour Naruto found herself alone back at the camp. She'd managed to get a bunch of good edible nuts, but had problems holding it all when she also had to carry the logs. So she sat alone while waiting for the return of her teammates. After ten minutes of listening to the sounds of the forest she got inpatient and decided to be productive and do some chakra exercises.