Disclaimer: I own none of the original properties of Naruto, or Kuroshitsui, or Hetalia.

Words: 2,403

Chapter 1: Adaptation?

I rushed out of the village, my bag bumping haphazardly against my thigh. Twisting around people in the street, I ran away from the map. I knew it was a childish thing to do, but seriously, I needed to get out of this place and think. Making my way into the tall grass off the path, I walked away, keeping my back to the village.

By now my legs were aching horribly from the distance I had walked. The longest I had walked this year was four hours, and that was months ago, any muscles I had built up from that had already deteriorated from laying around all day. Considering I had walked since morning, and the sun seemed ready to set within the hour that meant I had walked for over twelve hours today. My legs were so going to be dead tomorrow.

Wait, the sun was going to set soon... and I had nowhere to sleep. I was freaking exhausted, so I knew I couldn't stay up all night wandering or building a shelter, so I was going to have to find one in the next hour. My best bet was probably going back to the village, but really, I didn't want to risk getting caught. Which meant I would need to find an already existing, sturdy shelter if I wanted to be safe. Abandoned houses were out of the question, not only were they probably hard to find, but probably unstable; they were abandoned for a reason after all. Caves would be good, but they would be hard to find in such flat terrain like this... Unless I could find running water. Although still a bit farfetched, it was my best choice so far. The water may have hollowed out a small cave like shelter where I could sleep. Generally it was bad to sleep near water, in case of poison and flooding, but I could get a better place to stay tomorrow.

Keeping my had above the grass wasn't easy, so I found a small boulder to climb up on to give a better view. Spotting taller grass about 50 meters away I grinned, this was easier than I thought. Heading towards the tall(er) grass I then knew that everything would be okay. And then my stomach growled, or maybe not.

Turns out I was right, and the taller grass did indeed signify water, considering my bare feet which were up to my currently soaking in water, wetting the bottoms of my black sweatpants. The stream in which I was standing came up to my calves at the deepest point, so decided that walking down the little trail would be a good way to follow the water, even if I hate getting wet, hate it. HATE! Luckily for me, it only took me a bit to finally find a good rock outcropping to sleep in. It seemed that a long time ago the water in this stream was much deeper, and had caused a sudden outcropping of sandstone to have worn away in a patch, revealing a dry, sheltered (if not sandy) place to sleep. It was nice little elevated bed of sand for sleeping, with half of it protected by a rock overhang while the rest of the bed was in the perfect position to catch the last rays of sunlight before the moon rose in it's place.

Settling down on what was now to be my little elevated bed, I pulled my green bag off my now sore shoulder. I really hope I'll be able to move with all these sore muscles tomorrow. Before going to bed, I decided to check the contents of my precious satchel, I knew vaguely what was in there, but I might miss a few things, or something could have been stolen.

Opening the side pockets I pulled out an assortment of pens, pencils and markers, a porcelain cow leg, and a pencil sharpener stored in an empty Altoids container. Stuffing them back in their respective pockets I searched through the rest of the bag. When I finally finished I had found A book on herbal medicine, seven different mangas (first three books of Naruto, first two books of Kuroshitsuji and the first books in Hetalia), my fishing knife, an assortment of video games, my out-of-power cellphone, my out-of-power DS (the original kind), my nearly-out-of-power iTouch, a hair brush, black nail polish, black skin ink, my library card, my quote book which I filled with funny sayings, $30, plastic silverware, and a little baggie full of various pills. Good to know what I had. Now, time for sleep. Taking off my bright red jacket, I folded it and rested my head atop it. So tired...

Waking up was not a fun process for me. The first thing I noticed was that it was cold, the temperature had severely dropped during the night. Then I realized I was wet I don't like being wet, it's uncomfortable, especially when you're cold too. Then, when a pang of hurt ran through me, my attention was brought to my throbbing shoulder, legs and feet. Walking around for so long yesterday, barefoot no less, was bringing consequences to my body I wasn't sure I could afford.

Groaning, I turned over. The sun hadn't even risen yet, but you could see it's first rosy rays peeping up over the edge of the horizon in the east. I did not want to have to deal with this so early in the morning, but knowing I would not be able to fall back asleep, I lifted myself up. I winced, owwww, sore muscles... I stretched painfully, groaning. Today wasn't going to be fun at all... I wanted to fall asleep and wake up tomorrow, but I couldn't. I was already wake, no heading back now. Even if it was like 5:00 in the morning.

Standing up, I looked around me. I had found this place to sleep, and I kind of liked it, so I would stay here. Now I just needed to find out where "here" was. I climbed onto the sandstone overhang which I had slept under the night before. It wasn't quite tall enough for me to get a good look at where I was compared to the town. Frowning, I decided to find a good rock I good use as a small vantage point for the area around me. I started methodically circling around my little camp, each circle getting bigger as I went around, until I found a big rock about the size of a five gallon bucket. Crouching next to it, I examined it, I couldn't have to rock be some more grainy sandstone, that would corrode too easily. Luckily it wasn't, so I started rolling the heavy rock back to camp. It was a good thing that I was on the right side of the the stream, otherwise I would have had to roll this huge rock through it, and that wouldn't have been very fun. Finally stopping back on the sandstone overhang , I stood atop my newly made vantage point. Now I could clearly see the village in the distance.

I nodded to myself happily, progress was being made already. The next step would be to find some food. I had noticed some watercress yesterday in the stream. I would transfer some closer to my camp, later. I couldn't live off of little leaves for the rest of my life, I needed to find more food sources. I started walking in the shallow water of the stream, my eyes roamed across the bank. As I kept walking I noticed a population of cattails that was becoming more and more concentrated. This was good, cattails roots were edible, as were the middle of the stalks. Also, their fluffy pods could be plucked and the fluff could be used as a padding for a bandage. Maybe today would be good. I kept walking.

By the time I got back to my camp, I had picked some watercress, cattails, burdock root, and rice. The first thing I did was lay my jacket out on the ground and beat it with the wild rice stalks. The grains of rice fell onto my jacket, making little brown specks, some of which spilled out onto the sand. When the rice stopped falling out I took the remaining stalks and laid it out on the over hang above me where it could dry in the sun. Then I took out my fishing knife and started cutting up the burdock root into coins. When I was done with that I added the slices to the scattering of rice of my jacket. I then rinsed the watercress of any sand it may have had on it, shook off the access and threw that onto the pile too. The cattails I cut the roots off of, which I rinsed in the stream and added to the pile, and then proceeded to strip the outer layers of the cattail stalk until only the tender center was left. I cut up the center into more coins and added them to the pile as well. Now I needed a fire. This would be hard.

I knew none of my current equipment would be of any use to me if I wished to make food... except the utensils, those would help if I wanted to eat something with a fork or spoon... but that wasn't the point! I needed more stuff to make the food I would use a spoon or fork to eat. Honestly, I had no idea how to make anything which would help me make fire, or carry water for that matter, since that would also be helpful. Maybe if I had a way to fry stuff... that would be nice too... I shook my head quickly, one thing at a time. First: getting stuff to light a fire. I knew of one place where I could get stuff like that in my current predicament, from people. Now I just need to find which person to take it from.

When I entered the village I had no idea where to start... So I immediately went to the place with the most people. Hopefully no ninja were in this town... I cast a glance around the market square in which I had entered, bustling villagers went about there daily lives, a few stopped to look at me, the newcomer. I guess this town was small enough that everyone knew everyone. Most just tried tp ignore me and go about their daily lives. I was thankful for that. There were no ninja, I thanked the sky for that.

Walking around casually I made list of what I would need to be able to stash in my bag. Matches, a pot and if I was lucky maybe a glass jar too. I liked glass jars... plus they were good for storing things. Spotting what seemed to be a small market stand for firewood, I casually wandered over. It looked like I was just browsing around, or at least that's what I wanted it to look like, I'm not sure if my facade was perfect. Indeed to my deduction, there was a small basket full of little match boxes. The matched seemed like the old duds my grandpa put in his attic, they were thicker and more clumsy than the matches I was used to, but they would work. Grabbing them while I was sure the stand owner wasn't I watching, I stuffed them into my green bag. I wasn't sure whether to be proud of myself or not as I ambled away.

I eventually was able to find an old man who had a cooking store, full of different cooking equipment, there was even an old bookshelf filled with what I assumed were cookbooks. I ignored them, they were useless to me anyway.

After some contemplation I decided the best way to steal the large cast iron pot I had set my eyes on was to break into the store after dark. I felt bad for this... I would make it up to the old man some how later. Until then, I needed to get some food. I didn't want to walk all the way back to my camp until I was sure I wouldn't be coming back for at least a day. So, I decided I may as well continue my stealing streak and snatch some bread or something.

This time I wasn't so lucky in my theft. As I pulled my arm back after picking a small loaf of bread a large, meaty hand grasped my wrist. Hard. I winced, that hurt dammit! I looked up in trepidation. A fat, sweaty man was glaring out at me with little squinty eyes from under a faded blue headband. He said something to me in a harsh, unforgiving voice. I was so scared... this was not awesome. I was absolutely screwed. Then, when the gross old man was about to slap me with a raised hand, something very unexpected happened.

The first warning that something strange was going to happen was a deep, booming voice which shouted out from across the market square. When the man paid no heed to the voice, just when his hand was coming down to meet my face, a whooshing sound rushed by my head, and then a truly frightful figure appeared. A tall, broad shouldered man with a bowl cut and the second most bushy eyebrows I have ever seen had stopped the fattie's hand from slapping me across the face. He wore green spandex, and awful orange leg warmers which clashed horribly with the green. He said something to the man, and even though I've never really learned Japanese, I'm pretty sure he mentioned youthfulness somewhere in there.

The fat man holding me loosened his grip in surprise, so I used the opportunity to jerk my arm away. I turned tail and ran to the outskirts of the village, loaf of bread in hand. I heard Gai call out to me, but no attempt was made to stop me in my dash. I sneaked back to my camp and ate the bread, I stayed away from the town for the next two days, eating the bitter burdock roots raw. A week passed and I finally stole the pot I wanted. Might Gai and his students had left.