(A.N: More to come soon ^~^)
***
"So we are going to stay here, huh? Quite a nice place for both safety and finding food. We could also keep check of our surroundings," Kabuto said.
"Especially with this bear here. This place gives excellent cover," Kaida replied.
"Then it is decided. Kabuto, prepare a cave for us a little away from the bear's cave. Kaida, inscribe some concealment seals in the area. I will scout the surroundings for water and anything else I can find," Itachi instructed.
"Okay, Captain," both Kaida and Kabuto said, starting their tasks.
"So, Kaida, I always wanted to ask: that famous bathhouse in the Uchiha district is yours, right?" Kabuto asked.
"Yes, our family owns that bathhouse. Why did you want to ask, anyway?" Kaida responded.
"Well, do you guys give a bulk discount? Due to its recent popularity, the young children in the orphanage are asking whether they could also use it, but the price is way over the budget of the orphanage," Kabuto said with a sigh.
"… Discount? I will book two large baths for your orphanage when we go back. You can bring everyone then," Kaida replied with a smile.
"No, no! I don't want you to take any loss; I will pay the price for those," Kabuto said hastily.
Pat, pat.
"With the income we are earning from that bathhouse, a single use of two normal baths will not even put a small dent in the profits, so don't worry about that. As for money, I thought we were becoming friends—well, maybe only I thought that," Kaida said dejectedly.
"No… Okay, I understand. Then I will bring everyone to your bathhouse," Kabuto said.
"That's more like it," Kaida replied, then brought a big leaf from a tree and slashed his hand to drip some blood on the leaf.
"What the hell are you doing?" Kabuto asked worriedly, stopping his work on the cave.
"Getting ink to make the seal. Those people took everything I had prepared other than kunai," Kaida said, focusing on the task at hand.
"Isn't there any other way than using your own blood?" Kabuto asked.
"Apart from ninja's blood and fuinjutsu ink, nothing else naturally has the capability to interact with chakra in the environment. In other words, it can't work for seals… and done." Kaida said as the leaf was now filled with enough blood to make the seal.
After that, Kaida simply used Healing Palm Jutsu, and the cut on his palm closed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Fine, I am going to focus on my task," Kabuto said, giving a last look at Kaida's hand.
'How the hell did this timid and upright boy become the final villain in the end?' Kaida thought before starting to make many seals in the surrounding area. Most of them were concealment arrays, but some were also motion detection seals that would send signals to Kaida upon detecting any movement.
After surrounding the base with seals, Kaida went to the deer that the bear had hunted and placed it on top of a thick branch on a nearby tree. He made some cuts on its neck and other veins to drain the blood, storing it for the bear as well.
After two hours, Kabuto came out of the hole, all of his clothes dirty.
"What the hell were you doing inside to get this dirty?" Kaida asked, looking toward him.
"Enlarging the cave, making three sections for each of us, and cleaning it a little," Kabuto said.
"Bro, we are not going to settle here. This is just a temporary base for three days; there was no need for you to do this much work," Kaida said.
"Yeah, but we have free time for the next three days. There is no extra work anymore, so I got a little carried away," Kabuto said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Well, it's good that you are done now. I was about to start cooking this one," Kaida said, patting the deer, which was now without its skin. Kabuto could see a heap of chopped wood and the deer skin lying around.
"You did this much in just two hours, along with making seals?" Kabuto asked.
Kaida simply made some hand signs, and poof, a shadow clone popped next to him. "I had help," he said, then went ahead arranging the wood.
"I really want to learn this jutsu. Among all the ones I know, this one is the most practical," Kabuto said.
"Well, you can when we go back; you are the Hokage's disciple," Kaida said.
"Hahaha, I wish I was! It was just for this exam," Kabuto replied.
"Then start going toward the jungle."
"Where are you going?" Kaida asked.
"I know about some wild spices. I will try my luck to see if I can find any," Kabuto said.
"Okay, but be alert all the time," Kaida warned.
"Sure."
…
After another half hour, Itachi came back.
"Where is Kabuto?"
"Welcome back, Captain. Kabuto went into the jungle to find some spices for cooking; he should be coming back any moment now," Kaida said.
"I'm already here," Kabuto said, coming back from the jungle.
"You didn't find anything?" Kaida asked, seeing the empty hands of both Kabuto and Itachi.
Both of them passed chakra into their storage seals, and various items came out.
"I found a water source nearby, this is rock salt from the mountain, and these are some berries," Itachi said.
"I found wild garlic, some herbs, this lemon-like fruit, and chilies," Kabuto added.
"Did you have to fight a bear for these things?" Itachi asked, noticing Kabuto's dirty state.
"No, I got like this while making the cave," Kabuto said.
"Okay," Itachi said, not asking further.
"Hmm, now that we have so many ingredients, it would be a waste to eat this bland, but only if I had honey… Wait a minute," Kaida said, calling out to the bear.
"Guah?" The bear tilted its head, seeing the deer like that.
"Do you know any place where we could find honey?" Kaida asked.
"?"
"A yellow liquid that tastes sweet and is surrounded by small flying insects," Kaida explained.
"Guah." The bear nodded its head and then ran toward the jungle. Kaida then made a shadow clone, which used Transformation Jutsu to convert into a pan.
"You are the only person in the world who would use a B-rank jutsu to make a pan," Itachi said, shaking his head.
"Well, chakra should have more use than just killing, right?" Kaida said, then began taking out some of the deer fat. But his words left his two teammates in deep thought.
After ten minutes, the bear came back with a complete beehive in its hand. Some of the bees were still sticking to its fur, but because of the coating of the fur, none of them managed to get past that.
"Good job!" Kaida said, taking the comb from the bear and pouring the honey onto a leaf.
He then started a small fire and placed the pan on it. Once it was heated, he added the deer fat to simmer. After it melted, he added honey, garlic, herbs, and a little bit of rock salt. After it simmered for half a minute, he added the 'lemon' to balance out the flavor.
'I hope we had soy sauce; well, it will be fine without it anyway.'
"Do you want to eat that?" Kaida asked the bear, pointing toward the organs he had taken out while cleaning it. Normally, they would be thrown away.
"Guah!" the bear jumped at that anyway.
"Luckily, I had cleaned them," Kaida said, already expecting something like that. He then made a rotating platform to place the deer on, with the help of his clones—one for rotating, one for maintaining the fire, and the last one for applying the glaze. Kaida completed all of the preparations.
"How long will it take?" Itachi asked, looking at the deer intensely.
"Yes?" Kabuto asked.
"We will have to wait for a very long time—at least five to six hours. But till then, we have the berries that Itachi brought back with him," Kaida said, pointing toward them.
"Nope, I will wait for this," Kabuto said and sat next to the fire.
"Me too," Itachi said as he also sat next to them.
"In that case, we can drink some herbal tea while waiting for it to cook," Kaida suggested, seeing the clone he had sent into the jungle coming back with lots of herbs in its hands.
"That's a great idea!" Kabuto said.
Kaida once again used Shadow Clone Jutsu and Transformation Jutsu to get a kettle from the jungle and placed it over the fire, filled with water and a mixture of herbs.
Seeing all three of them sitting by the fire, the bear also joined them. After eating, it simply sat next to Kaida, but its eyes were focused on the deer as well.