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 countered.
But there was nothing left of the deer, leaving the three hungry ninjas who hadn't eaten much the entire day after doing so much physical work. The diet of a bear was no joke; it had consumed 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 lady!" 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 direction with motion-sensing seals, so no one will be able to ambush us. Our base is also covered in at least a hundred concealment seals. The array I've formed is my best yet. Even though they're not foolproof, at least no one our age will be able to find us for sure," Kaida said.
"Okay, then let's all get some sleep."
"Hey, big fellow, go sleep in your cave and catch one more deer tomorrow, okay?" Kaida said to the bear.
"Guah!" The bear nodded its head excitedly. Kaida dispersed all of his clones, and the three of them headed toward the cave Kabuto had created.
"You made stairs?" Itachi asked, surprised.
"You're getting surprised too easily, Captain; he's done much more than that," Kaida replied.
Once inside, they arrived at a very large area that had something akin to sofas inside. Kabuto lit a torch and placed it on the wall, casting warm light that made the three sections 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 much unnecessary hard work, Kabuto. A simple cave would have been sufficient."
Kaida glanced around at the effort Kabuto had put into their temporary base. The spacious cave was more than they needed, with makeshift seating that looked comfortable. 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 comfortable."
Kaida laughed 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 another stone seat.
"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 lamented.
"Well, I can use a shadow clone to make mattresses if you guys want," Kaida offered.
"Absolutely not! Under no circumstances am I going to sleep on you!" Kabuto firmly declined.
"I'll also pass," Itachi added.
"As you wish," Kaida said and made a single shadow clone, which transformed into a mattress that he placed in his bed before going to sleep. Kabuto and Itachi just shook their heads and settled on the stone beds Kabuto had created.
The next day, they woke up and headed to the water source Itachi had found to wash up. When they returned, the bear was already standing in front of its cave with an even larger bear lying next to it this time.
"Good boy! But where do you keep finding these deer?" Kaida asked, as neither he, Itachi, nor Kabuto had spotted any deer in the forest.
The bear pointed its paw toward a distant mountain. "Guah!"
"Oh, no wonder we didn't find them. Good job!" Kaida exclaimed 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 coming!" Itachi and Kabuto immediately tensed, their hands reaching for their weapons.
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 searching for food and arrived here. We don't want any fight."
"… …" After a moment of hesitation, Kaida and his team lowered their weapons 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 and went to the deer. He then took out a full hind leg, wrapped it in large leaves, and gave it to them.
"Since we took your scroll, consider this an apology. Also, let me give you a quick healing."
The three of them looked at each other, hesitant.
"If I wanted to, 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 hinder their 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 can always hunt more.
Aside from that, they somehow found our base. If they really wanted trouble, they could team up with other teams to gang up on us. Now at least there's a chance they'll leave us alone," Kaida explained.
"The leg will be deducted from your share," Kabuto got to the main point. At that, both Itachi and the bear nodded their 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 managed to obtain one scroll between them. It wasn't enough. They needed three—one for each member.
"Someone already took it!" Deidara growled, clenching his fists. His temper flared, and his patience snapped. "I'm tired of searching like a common scavenger."
The locations they got were at opposite ends of Lightning Valley. Due to rough weather and terrain, it took them much longer to reach the second location, but someone had already taken the second scroll by then.
His hands formed a rapid set of seals, chakra surging through his body as he slammed his palms into the ground. A deep hole emerged in the mountain, almost reaching the bottom.
Then he took out a big ball made of white clay and dumped it in the mountain, repeating the same step two more times before jumping off. His teammates followed, knowing well what was going to happen next.
With a deafening explosion, the entire mountainside blew apart in a cloud of dust and rubble. Rocks rained down, and the sheer force of the explosion caused the earth to tremble beneath 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, glaring at the destruction he had caused.
His teammate sighed, "We still need two more scrolls. Blowing up mountains isn't going to help us."
Deidara growled, but he knew they were right. They were running out of time, and other teams were already ahead of them.
---
Elsewhere in the valley, teams from various villages were either struggling or thriving. Some had managed to 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 searching the wilderness for one. The tension was mounting as the deadline approached. With only two days remaining, the movement among teams increased.