one_long_mission | [open] shinobi survival weekend... err... I mean, field trip

There were many cheers and happy cries from the small team.

"It's finally time! Yeaa!" Miki howled in delight, both arms raised to the sky. "We're gonna be the best!"
"It's not as much being the best as getting through it however we can."
"Akemi is a moodbreaker!" the other youth pointed a finger accusingly.
"You're the one making this a big deal. It's not exactly a contest" Hiro gave a light sniff and pushed his glasses back up his nose.

Anything else was forgotten, however, because two people came around the bend, the trio rushing towards them with their backpacks. "Sasuke-kun! Itachi-san!" they cried in unison, their little feet taking them towards the duo as fast as they could.
There was an amazingly youthful energy around them.

Itachi felt a little guilty for Sasuke having to push him and his supplies, which hung neatly from the back of the wheelchair. But Sasuke didn't seem to mind a bit.

He packed only the essentials, of course. They made omusubi, and that was tightly wrapped along with a small supply of fresh water. He had a bedroll with extra blankets. The vast majority of his bag was a first aid kit, so to speak - filled with various types of medicine for both the usual and emergency situations.

Upon hearing all their voices, he raised his hand in a pleasant wave.

"Is everyone... all packed and ready?"

Once they head out, there's no turning back for three days.

Of course everyone answered at the same time.

"I got dried meat n'water!"
"I got bandages and medical stuffs!"
"Packed up everything my dad said I needed, so I got material to make traps, n'fish if we find some kinda stream!"

Sasuke laughed. "Everyone sounds like they just wanna leave the village behind." and he sort of was too. This felt like a big adventure!

"We do!" they all answered in unison.

He unfolded the papers that the Hokage had given to all the chaperones.

"I have the map... but I'm going to need some help reading it... I'm afraid my eyes aren't quite what they used to be." he admitted. "So I'm going to need a navigator."

He knew they'd be out by the mountains, that there would be a river to cross on the way there and back, and that there'd be caves. But the fine details, (and anything the Hokage didn't tell him) was left to the map.

"I can!"
"I can too!"
"But can you use a compass?"
"...uh..."
"Thought so!"

"Hiro can be the navigator. Akemi, you're really sharp, so you can be the one leadin the way forward. Miki, your job's gonna be really important! I'm gonna be pushin Niisan, so you're gonna have to watch"
"Watch? For what?"
"Remember? We gotta find our food."
"Oh yea! Animal tracks and fruit bushes and things like that?"
"Yea!" Sasuke nodded. "We can collect fresher food or see about laying traps if we get close to a stopping point!"

"Remember... keep an eye out for not just food, but anything... that might be out of the ordinary. Shinobi must be especially observant outside the village. You never know when... your safety may be threatened."

He explained the concept of watching your teammates backs, not just when they were traveling, but also when they would eventually stop. Each of them would have a shift, and they would keep watch, just like real shinobi on a mission.

"But what's outta the ordinary?" Miki blinked.
"Yeah, we've never been out of the village." Hiro had claimed the map and was studying it before they departed.

Sasuke explained about how broken branches could mean someone or something was hiding, as well as oddly-placed animal carcasses that wouldn't be the work of a predator among other signs.
"I'll watch too." Akemi nodded.
"Yeah. That's real, so you all gotta be sharp. There could be bears or other things we don't know in these places!" Sasuke nodded.

"In this case... a lot might be out of the ordinary... so feel free to point it out. This is a learning experience... I'll try to help as best I can."

They stopped to study the map.

They were heading north, toward a small forest. Beyond that, there would be a clearing and a narrow path through the valley out of the village. It would take about a day to reach their target site along the gorge. They were to set up camp there for a couple days, and on the third day, return to the village.

According to the map, a small stream ran through the valley. It was the rainy side of the mountain, so chances are, there might be fish. But their best chance of gathering or hunting for food was probably in the forest.

"This is gonna be easy~"
"This is gonna be awesome!"
"This'll be so unlike what you two expect."

Sasuke couldn't help but laugh at them again. They were all so different, and yet... it was like they couldn't really be complete without each other. "Remember, gotta point out stuff out of the ordinary. Everyone ready? Form up!"
Hiro folded the map so he could see their path better. "Right!"
Miki rushed ahead of him and Akemi took the front, and the small group marched out, Sasuke pushing the wheelchair at the back.

Once they reached a quarter of the way, Sasuke thought wiser to switch and let Akemi handle the front with Miki at the rear since he couldn't watch and push the wheelchair and supplies.

Trading off with pushing was a good idea. Even though they were fortunate enough to be following a path the merchants often used, it still got tiring.

It wasn't long before they came to a bridge overlooking a stream. According to the map, they'd be out of the forest soon.

"This looks like a good place to stop... and try to catch a meal."

When they did come to a stop, Itachi stood up and peered over the edge of the bridge. With his sharingan, he could see the faint outline of fish swimming upstream. They were fairly large, and in the relatively large numbers one would commonly see in a migration. He pulled out a kunai and tapped it on the bridge.

"Now... who mentioned they packed fishing line?"

"I did!" Miki hastily stopped to look for it within his pack. "Dad loved to fish when he was younger.. in the village he's from he said there were so many places to fish, and he sorta misses it." a pause. "I uh..sorta never fished though.."
"Me neither"
"I never did. Sasuke?"

"We can let Miki try. Maybe you've got some sorta fishin genes off your dad." he gave a light laugh. "I'll go find wood to start a fire! Akemi, find rocks. Hiro, take niisan in that little clearing there, we're gonna stop an hour or so!"
The fire was built, with Ssauke insisting it was a waste to use a jutsu to light it, using the flint he had brought instead.
"Remember how Itachi-san explained?" Hiro blinked up at Miki. "Chakra is limited, so that's why you don't use it for small stuff."

"Easy, there... Sasuke." Itachi laughed a little. He let the boys take the chair and the supplies to the clearing, confident that Sasuke could build a good fire. But he chose to stay with Miki on the bridge.

"Catching fish on a mission... is a little different than doing it for fun. We don't have all day to sit and wait for a nibble..." He explained, taking some of the fishing line and tying it around the kunai. He wrapped the other end around his wrist, making sure he had plenty of slack. "Watch..."

He carefully watched the fish with his sharingan. The water was clear enough that they could be seen with normal eyes too. The sharingan just made it a lot easier to follow them. One swift fling of the wrist, and the kunai hit the water (and an unsuspecting fish!). Itachi caught the string, tugged it in, and held up his catch.

"Care to... give it a try?"

The youth stared with wide eyes. "Whooaaaa!" amazement was clear upon the youthful face. "That was awesome!" he cheered. Here he thought he -would- try and wait for a bite...

"I wanna try!" he took his own kunai, tying a length of string and stared at the water below... and flung it down. He caught nothing and glared, pulling it back up with the line, and tried again.. and again.. and every time he squinted harder and harder.

"I give up! How d'you that? I don't have your eyes. We should get Sasuke to fish instead."

"This isn't something I learned in the Academy... Picked it up from a man I was partnered with for a long long time. And he... didn't have my eyes." Itachi encouraged. "Always said the secret... was aiming not where the fish are, but where they're going."

Itachi pointed to the stream.

"Watch them... They're moving upstream to spawn... Aim in front of them. Not at them..."

Miki blinked, mouth half-open, and nodded after the explanation before watching the stream and the fish. "So.. aiming... where they're going.."

He was as successful as his previous attempts, but... "ALMOST!" he gripped tighter at the bridge's railing, hastily retrieving the line and trying again. The second time was a failure, but upon the third attempt, however.. "WHOA!! I got one!!" the kunai had pierced a fish and the overexcited youth struggled to pull his catch up. "I did it! I did it!"

"Good!" Itachi praised. "... It's a good thing they're migrating... Or else a few misses would have scared most of them away. Go take our fish back to the others... And have them come give it a try..."

At the end of the hour, all the kids had fun -or irritation- catching the fish. Hiro found out a fatal flaw: his glasses. They kept slipping or just making it hard to aim exactly where he wanted. Sasuke decided that after they nearly slipped OFF and into the stream, that they should try and devise some method for them to just stay put. No shinobi could have that fatal a weakness after all.

Once everyone had their stomach full of fish, they were on the road again. It had been decided that once they got back to the village, they would try and find goggles for Hiro to wear so his glasses would stay put. Most of the way was spent imagining how that would look, with Sasuke occasionally reminding everyone to look out for anything odd along their path.

Discussions like that were important for young shinobi, and Itachi let them brainstorm all kinds of solutions. He also made sure to preserve some of the cooked fish for later, by putting chunks in the spare rice he'd brought. More omusubi was never a bad thing, especially when food may be scarce later on.

"Consider an activity like the one with the fish... target practice. If you ever have to use a kunai in battle... It's the same principle. Don't throw where the enemy is. Throw... where they're going. Which makes fighting... all about timing..."

"That makes sense." Miki admitted. "Wouldn't have thought about it before though." he admitted.
"When you hunt stuff, it's like this." Akemi nodded. "You gotta uh.. think ahead too. Not everything or everyone moves predictably either."

Sasuke was all grin as he pushed the wheelchair. This was going well so far, and they were halfway to the campsite. "Remember, we're gonna use that camp for days, so we can't build a fire. It'd give our position away."
"Yeah, if enemies see that, they could get the jump on us. We're not havin any of that." Miki shook his head.
One had to wonder what these kids' abilities in actual combat were if any threats did come. Sasuke had lived through a hairy situation once thanks to his big brother, so he had experienced some danger, but the other three were simple village youth with shinobi blood.

"It depends on what you meany predictable..." Itachi added. "People may not always... do what you expect them to do... but they're working with the same basic tools... The same body, that can only move in so many ways. When you get more experienced in taijutsu... it'll be easier to visualize. You'll start to pick out the way one movement flows into another. Makes it... A little more predictable."

He gave Sasuke a nod. "The sharingan enhances perception... But we can work on that part together later..."

While it was unlikely that they would face actual dangerous combat situations, anything was possible. Itachi hoped, of course, that all would go well.

Sasuke gave his brother a chirped agreement from the back.

"Hey, look at that..." Akemi suddenly stopped. "There's something that looks like it's been run over.."
Indeed, it was the remains of what might have been a wolf. The last caravan looked like it had indeed run it over.

"Wolf?" Sasuke blinked, incredulous.
As everyone gathered to look at it, the youngest Uchiha was only more perplexed. "It's all thin and stuff.. how did it even go into a caravan's path?" he made sure that even if they were around it, they still kept a distance. "They might be scavengers, but they keep away from humans, and it'd be a while for it to be that famished..."

"We gotta note that in the records!" Akemi took out the pad she used, to keep track of their progress, having written about the fish-catching earlier. "I'd say we should take fur samples since they did ask for proof of our explorations but... ew." she wrinkled her nose.

"I think it's best... to leave that alone, Akemi." He replied. "But I suspect... it will be more difficult to find food from here on out."

The forests weren't filled with wolves. So this one likely came down from the mountain range in serch of food.

"And keep your guard up. Wolves... are pack animals... There may be more of them out there. Look for tracks... for signs that animals have been through the area. Listen carefully... If we can spot them before they spot us, that's our best chance to get away... without being attacked. If food is that scarce... they will attack us..."

"But it's been days since the last caravan..."
"Yeah, but if there was a pack, they might've found a territory." Sasuke looked around slowly, then... "I know! We can't cover lotsa ground, so I can use my crow to look around!"

"Your crow?"
"You got a crow!? Where is it?"
Sasuke scratched the back of his head, pausing in his trek. "Oh right, I never showed you." with reason, they would have wanted to try it too.
"You said we're not supposed to waste chakra."
"That's called scoutin ahead." the Uchiha youth corrected. "He's better equipped to deal with danger too."

Itachi stood up and swept the entire area with his sharingan. The area they were in was safe for the time being, so he had them pause for a moment. It was a good time to explain what kuchiyose jutsu was, how a summoning contract worked, and some of the benefits of having animals to help on a mission.

"Summoned animals... can make good scouts... Especially when it would be unwise to split up your group. Which, if we encountered a pack of wolves... would be a very bad thing to do... They take only a little chakra to summon, and can move ahead, scout out an area and come back, and communicate possible danger to you."

When they asked how, Itachi replied that, "Sometimes, like with a dog... it's understanding the way an animal behaves. Some summoned animals... talk. Like some of the toads and slugs..."

He turned to Sasuke and smiled.

"Go ahead... show them what you can summon and how its done."

Just one of many educational moments that this trip was created for.

There were various noises of shock as Sasuke punctured his own thumb with his teeth before going through the necessary handsigns. More gasps as the summoning circle spread on the ground, and--

"Whoa!"
"Awesome!"
"Aww it's so cute!"

Further reactions were stopped by a raised palm. He didn't need the crow to think he was showing off. None of them and possibly Itachi had ever seen Sasuke with a look this serious as he addressed the animal.
"I need you to do somethin for me, mister crow." the animal cocked its head at that. "See this?" the boy pointed to the wolf. "We gotta know if there's anythin dangerous near here."

A caw answered him, the animal flapping its wings. It was apparently already headed out to complete its task, but not before Sasuke asked it to be careful.

After it was gone?
"Can I do it too?"
"I want one!"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject