Our second day in the Land of Rivers was spent doing nothing different from our first day.
Moving through unfamiliar terrain, eyes sharp, legs sore, neck stiff. Watching, waiting, anticipating sothing that never ca.
We jumped from branch to branch, stopped whenever Koji or Kuro caught a scent, crouched, scanned, and moved again. The cycle repeated a dozen tis over. Nothing. No traps. No scouts. No puppets hiding in the trees. Just more damp air, more fog, more trees that looked exactly like the ones behind us.
And it was pretty fucking boring.
The Land of Rivers might be small compared to both Fire and Wind, but it wasn't a small place at all. It was still an entire country. Hills, forests, rivers, cliffs—enough space to easily hide a hundred ambush squads if you wanted to.
Which was the problem. Too many places to hide. Not enough actual enemies.
Haruto didn't complain. Arata barely spoke. Koji muttered the occasional curse when Kuro picked up another false trail, but even that faded as the hours wore on. The tension was still there, under the surface, but it wasn't sharp anymore—it was dull, tired, dragged out like muscles after too long a stretch.
Even if they took it well, I could tell it was getting to them, and to , I too felt the strain. It was tough, and it was boring, and that was a real killer. We were getting sloppy, our focus weakening, our defence slowly lowering.
"That's enough, Koji, ti for a break." I finally spoke up. Unwilling to let this go on any longer.
Koji landed lightly on a thick branch ahead of and glanced back. "Yeah," he muttered, exhaling through his nose. "Kuro's getting tired of sniffing tree bark anyway."
Kuro let out a soft chuff, ears flicking in agreent as the two started to look around for a place, with offering minimal assistance. Sure, the Byakugan would do great work here, but I wanted Koji to get used to leading us around.
We moved around for another half hour or so before Koji found a place he was satisfied with.
It was a broad, high-branch cluster tucked deep into the canopy, partially shielded from above by overlapping leaves and twisted limbs. Good visibility. One natural choke point. Hard to approach without being seen or heard.
Koji landed first, Kuro a shadow beside him. He scanned the angles, then nodded. "This'll do."
I gave the area a quick look with the Byakugan. There were no chakra trails, tripwires, or unusual residue. It was clear.
"Alright," I said, landing beside him. "We stay on guard, but we are safe for the mont, so take a rest, everyone, you have earned it."
The others landed without a word. Arata moved to sit with his back against a tree, exhaling slowly through his nose. Haruto sat down not far from him, taking the chance to rest and drink a few mouthfuls of water.
Koji gave Kuro a quick pat before dropping his butt down on the hard wood. "You hear that, boy? Rest. That ans no chasing squirrels for once."
Kuro let out a quiet huff, circled once, and settled with his chin on his paws. His ears stayed alert.
I joined them in resting my legs and sipping so water. Being so close to the land of Wind, and getting all the water from the Land of Rain, made Rivers, hot and humid.
It wasn't comfortable. Nothing about this was. But it was still a break—and that made it valuable.
Koji stretched his arms over his head with a loud pop and let out a groan. "Ugh, if I see one more tree, I might just set it on fire."
"You'd start a forest fire," Haruto said flatly, still watching the periter.
Koji gave a lazy shrug. "If it gets the enemy running out, I call that a win."
"You wouldn't even know if you got one," Arata muttered. "Smoke that thick, you'd be lucky to see your own hand."
"Still better than hiking through endless green with nothing to punch," Koji grumbled. "Seriously, who designs a whole country like this? Trees, hills, fog—it's like the place was made to be annoying."
"No one designed it," I said, dryly. "And unless your na happens to be Madara Uchiha, you aren't gonna burn this forest down, it's too wet."
Koji leaned his head back against the bark and sighed. "Tch. Figures. Even the trees are against ."
Kuro let out a low noise, sowhere between a growl and a yawn, and Koji shot him a look. "Don't start. I'm already outvoted."
Arata gave a short snort but said nothing more, his eyes half-lidded but still tracking movent out in the mist. Typical of him. If it wasn't worth saying, he didn't.
I rolled my shoulders once and let out a slow breath. The tension hadn't vanished, but it had backed off a bit. Letting the team breathe, complain, grumble—that helped more than silence ever could.
"Remind again," Koji said after a mont, "why we couldn't be assigned to a border post with an actual roof? You know, one with walls. Food. Sake."
"Because we're good," I replied. "And good teams get sent to crawl through forests to stop threats before they reach those comfortable outposts."
He made a face. "You could've just said 'because life isn't fair.' Would've saved breath."
"Then stop wasting yours."
He grinned at that. A tired grin, but still real.
We lapsed into silence again, the kind that wasn't uncomfortable—just needed. The forest creaked quietly around us, and the fog shifted like a living thing, coiling and stretching between the trees.
I kept scanning with my Byakugan every few minutes. Still no chakra signatures, nothing to chase, nothing chasing us.
It was a good thing, no enemies ant no dangers… but it was boring, and I hated being bored… having been sealed on the moon for a millennium made despise boredom.
After about twenty minutes of rest, I gave the signal to move.
Koji groaned as he stood. "I think my spine tried to fuse to that branch."
"Good," I said, tightening the straps on my vest. "Maybe you'll stop twisting around like you're trying to dodge imaginary kunai."
Kuro stood without complaint. Haruto was already alert again, standing before anyone else had moved. Arata rolled one shoulder, then followed in silence.
We picked up the pace—still cautious, still quiet, but with more ground to cover before dusk, I pushed us just a little harder. Fog thinned slightly as the trees grew taller and spaced wider, but that only made it harder to judge distance. The light filtered through like it was unsure whether it wanted to be day or night.
Another few hours of the sa. Watch. Leap. Scan. Pause. Nothing. Move again.
Koji broke the silence around the third false scent Kuro flagged. "We are never going to find anyone, are we?"
"Would you rather get ambushed?" Haruto asked, not looking back.
"I'd rather punch sothing. At this point, I'd take a rogue squirrel."
"You really want to put Kuro through the sha of his partner losing a fight to a squirrel?" I asked.
Kuro seed both amused and proud of that one, while Koji could only grumble under his breath.
We kept moving until the light started to dim for real. Shadows grew longer. Birds stopped calling. The chill deepened.
By the ti I signaled another halt, everyone was running on the last of their edge. Even Arata looked like he was running low on patience. Koji just collapsed against a trunk and let out a long groan.
"Here?" he asked, not even trying to hide how done he was.
I activated the Byakugan again and scanned the area. It is at a decent elevation and has dense coverage. There are no chakra signatures or trails nearby. There is tight access from two directions, both of which we could easily block or watch.
"It'll do," I said. "We settle here for the night."
No one argued.
Within minutes, we had a rough camp set—no fire, of course, just cloaks, packs, and positioning. Kuro curled into a tight ball. Haruto took watch without needing to be asked.
Koji flopped back against a branch and pulled a ration from his belt pouch. He looked at it like it had personally wronged him.
"This again," he muttered. "Tastes like dry regret."
"At least it's consistent," Arata said, biting off a piece of his with no expression.
"I'd kill for soup," Koji continued, chewing with visible effort. "Actual soup. A bowl of miso. Nothing fancy."
"No chance of boiling water out here without giving our position away," I said. "So enjoy your regret bar."
Koji took another bite. "Delicious. Really."
The silence that followed was tired but comfortable. No one was smiling, but no one looked like they were going to snap, either.
As we all finished our als, which I privately agreed with Koji could use so improvents, it was ti for sleep, but before that… once more, nature called. Honestly, even handling it just once a day was a feat that ca with careful training.
It was nothing special; every shinobi was trained to respond to nature's call. But we were still human, even though I just had a human body right now, so there was a limit to what we could do. And while going more than a day wasn't impossible, it was generally advised against.
I stood and gave Koji a small nod. "I'm heading down. I'll need Kuro with ."
Koji blinked, then quickly realized what was happening, and didn't ask any questions. "Kuro, you're up."
The ninken stood instantly, shaking once before padding over to . His ears twitched, eyes already scanning the dark beneath the branches as if he understood exactly what his job was.
I dropped down silently from the tree cluster, Kuro following close behind. The ground was soft with damp moss, helping to make our drop silent.
I moved quietly but quickly, not wanting to be down here any longer than necessary. It wasn't fear—not really—but there was sothing instinctively unpleasant about this.
With my Byakugan active, I looked around and used a small earth ninjutsu, barely even D rank, to make a small hole in the ground, just a small indent.
Kuro stayed a half-step behind the whole ti, his nose twitching, ears raised and alert. With my Byakugan, there was no chance of anything sneaking up on us, but I still appreciated that he took this seriously.
"What about you Kuro? I didn't notice you going since this morning." I asked as I tried to feel slightly less awkward about being just under the others, who only had to look down to see .
Kuro gave no vocal response, but just shook his head and indicated up towards the others.
"Ahh, going with Koji later? That's good, I need soone to keep an eye on him, and I don't trust anyone else but you with that." I gave him a few gentle pets.
This finally made him give a small pleased bark, it wasn't loud at all, and I didn't understand what he said, but it wasn't hard to guess.
Kuro's tail gave a slow, lazy wag, and for a second, it almost felt like we weren't buried deep in unfamiliar territory, surrounded by nothing but fog, trees, and silence. Just a girl and a loyal dog, sharing a mont in the middle of nowhere.
I sighed and stood, fixing my shorts back on. "Alright, thanks for keeping safe, Kuro, you are the best." I gave him another pat on the head as we both jumped back up.
Back in the canopy, Koji was reclining against the thick fork of a tree, one leg dangling, arms crossed, pretending to doze. His eyes flicked open as soon as we returned.
"All clear?" he murmured, voice just above the breeze.
"Clean as the first day," I said, slipping back into my place and tugging my cloak around .
"Good," he said. "Kuro?"
Kuro returned to his side without hesitation, flopping down before starting a small, quiet conversation with him, one neither of us understood at all. Whatever they were saying, Koji seed to turn all red in the face before he excused himself, and the two jumped down to do their own business.
I wanted to show that not every single mont outside on a mission is one filled with action. Shinobi are all experts in hiding(except Naruto) and so finding them aren't easy, even with sensors, simply because the world is a big place.
Try going out into a big forest and see if you can find soone… it isn't easy, more so when they try to hide from you.
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