It had been several weeks since Kegar had become the teacher of the three boys, and finally they were being assigned to their first mission: taking scrolls to the newly allied town of the village hidden in the clouds, as its name suggests it rested undisturbed at the top of a very tall and desolate cliff, surrounded by thick forest and jagged ridges.
As Sasuke packed what all he needed into his pack, an old friend came and dropped something next to his leg for him to put in along with his belongings. A bone.
"Sorry Ammy, you can't come on this one" he told her as he handed her the chewtoy back.
Whimper
"I can't help it, senseis' rules, I would bring you along if I could, but someone's gotta stay here and take care of mom and dad while I'm gone……"
'Then who's gonna take care of you?' said a voice out of nowhere.
Jumping to his feet and grabbing a kunai from his pouch the Uchiha darted his eyes around his room. Nothing.
The only thing to be heard was birds chirping happily outside and Amaris sliding the door open with her paw, giving him a grunting sound as she left.
After standing in the defensive position for a good five minutes he finally let his guard down and finished packing, it was time for him to get on his way, besides, it was probably just his mind playing tricks on him, great, just what he needed.
"Oh my little baby's growing up!" Mikoto squealed as she hugged him tight, he had come to pack some food for the trip (Kegar had a nasty habit of not providing for his students) and to bid farewell to his parents.
"Mother, please, I'll be back in a week or two, no need to suffocate me to keep me here" he grumbled, trying to pry her hands off of him.
"Oh I know but, this is just the start, soon I'll never see you anymore! Just like your older brother"
"Put on your glasses, I'm not him! I need to go" he grumbled as he closed his sack and headed out the door.
X.x.x.x.X.x.x.x.X
"Look who finally decided to show up" Shi teased as the teenage Uchiha arrived.
"Whatever, where's Kegar?"
"Don't know, don't care"
"Ok girls listen up" the sensei growled as he arrived, dropping a heavy crate filled with scrolls in front of the teens' feet, narrowly missing them.
"We have to get these to SkyScar village, divide the load between the three of you, this will be a long walk so I advise no one make a sound, I am in NO mood to deal with you brats."
"Sensei, SkyScar village is a four-day walk, we aren't going straight there are we?" The less gifted Hyuuga was foolhardy enough to ask.
"Maybe we will, maybe we won't, now grab some scrolls and get walking" he ordered before turning to begin the journey himself, leaving the boys to gather the papers and run ahead to catch him.
X.x.x.x.X.x.x.x.X
Amaris trudged along as she walked her usual routes. Her master was going to be gone. What if he never came back? She wanted so badly to go along with him, to keep him safe, but he ordered her to stay and guard, so she will obey.
Hearing a familiar voice she lifted her head to see none other than the master; that terrible old grump and the two other teens were there with him. Staying in the shadows she listened in and watched them leave. But as the one called Shi ran up to catch up with the others, he dropped a single scroll on the ground, not even stopping to pick it up.
Sprinting forward and sniffing the forgotten document, she came up with a sneaky idea and picked it up carefully in her jaws, turning her neck at an awkward angle to slide it into a pouch on her dog-vest, she ran forward, being sure to stay far away enough from the team so they wouldn't notice her as she stalked them all the way out of the village. And soon out of Kohona territory.
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Thankfully there was a small town on the way there, and having been walking all day and into the night, Sensei decided to stop and take lodge in the local in so he may get a good nights rest before they tackle the rest of their journey.
The catch: he left the boys to go camp in the woods.
"My feet are killing me" The Hyuuga moaned as he tied the scrolls up in a safe place in a tree before hopping down and sitting by the fire the Uchiha had made.
"Figures, that's what you get for attempting to pretend to be a ninja you tender-footed fool" Neji snapped, deeply irritated he had been sent on such a minor mission.
"Hey I wouldn't have had to walk so far if someone here hadn't taken us on the wrong trail!"
"For the last time, those maps were made over fifty years ago, it wasn't my fault!" he retorted, both Hyuuga's now standing to the feet, ready to rip each others' heads off.
"Here we go….." Sasuke moaned as he leaned up against the tree, trying to get comfortable, man was he hungry, and the snacks he had brought along did nothing for him considering when Kegar found out he 'confiscated' it from him.
Staring into the flickering flames of the fire all the noise of the other teens fighting was dulled out as he slowly fell asleep.
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Early the next morning the tired raven-haired teen awoke before the others. Seeing a heavy mist surrounding them as it usually did this time of morning he stretched his arms, but when they came down his left hand touched something on the ground.
Looking over he saw a cloth sack lying next to him, looking around before opening it up his eyes widened at what was inside: a dead rabbit. Already skinned and prepared to be cooked.
Where it came from? He didn't know. What is poisoned or tampered with? He didn't really care.
All he cared about was to get a fire going before his 'adored' teacher came back from his night on the town.
Soon the dead beast was roasting over the newly-lit fire, the aromatic smell of meat cooking waking up his teammates. Neither of them questioned him as to where it came from, neither one wanting to look foolish. They just assumed that the Uchiha had some unexpected survival culinary skills and left it at that.
The sun had fully risen and its heat was just beginning to be felt by all of the forest and its creatures within by the time Kegar showed up, all that was left as evidence of the boys' feast was the bones which were resting in the ashes of what had been a fire.
"Get a move on girls, SkyScar is still a long ways away and at the pace we're going we'll never get there before I finally die of old age, now move it!" he yelled his apparently favorite phrase out, being sure to give one of the boys, which happened to be Sasuke, a little shove to get him moving faster with his load of scrolls.
Throughout the entire day all they did was walk, seeing the occasional traveler or two. It seemed that their mission would never end, heck they weren't even sure about if they were going to right way, sensei had bought himself some liquor in town and well, usually alcohol is supposed to give people an opposite personality, but all it did for sensei was make him bad to worse. Now he was grumbling and muttering to himself, all the teens with him secretly eavesdropping while acting as if they couldn't care less.
Meanwhile……
Amaris held a dead rabbit in between her paws tightly as her sharp teeth and powerful jaws tore through skin and bones like paper. Luckily enough she had found a field where there was a huge number of them flourishing in their burrows. All she had to do was sniff them out and grab them before they went underground.
Ripping a chunk of meat off, brining internal organs along with it, she contemplated on where to 'stumble' across her master and give him the forgotten roll of paper, being so far away from Kohona there was no sense in making her go back alone, as long as she could avoid the grouchy old guy she should be alright.
Deciding she had had enough of her first raw meal in years, she left a part of the carcass in the bushes where some scavenger was sure to find it later.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X
The sun was at its highest point in the sky when they were stopped dead in their tracks. A recent rock fall cut off their path to SkyScar, because of its narrow and few pathways, this meant they would have to travel around swampland just to get to another path. The snow-laden hills they would have to brave to reach their goal was a daunting task seeing that no one came prepared for the cold.
Because of his drunkenness Kegar both did not notice nor care that his students were now holding their arms trying to keep warm, having not even reached snow yet.
Infact they were still traveling around the edge of the swampland, there was hardly anything there other than dead trees, murky water, and a terrible stench that would take weeks to scrub out of their skin when they reached home.
Twenty-five miles and a warmth-less afternoon later, the teens were up to their knees in cold snow, and this was just the start, they would have to hike over this snow-laden mountain to go into a desert-like area where their destination was residing.
Thankfully they came across a small village made out of no more than a handful of huts and a few other crude buildings. But they were friendly and more than willing to give the foreigners a warm place to sleep for the night. The drawback: they all had to share a hut.
After about an hour of laying wide eyed there, squished between Neji and Shi, Kegar snoring and the Hyuuga's mumbling incoherent words and death threats in their sleep. Sasuke swiftly removed himself from there and stepped outside.
The full moon shone brightly over the glistening snow. Taking a deep breath in he leaned against the side of the one-roomed cabin and closed his eyes, his arms holding himself to try and ward off the cold.
"Young man" an elderly woman stated after he had been standing like that for a good five minutes. "It's far too cold out here, why don't you head inside?" she asked in an old, withered voice.
"Couldn't sleep, I guess I'm a night-person"
"Hm, well atleast take this, to keep you cozy" she held out a heavy leather jacket to him that had been resting on her arm.
"Ma'am I couldn't, if there are any villagers here that need it they should have it"
"Oh hush, this winter the leather trade has been very good, especially with all these wild things around, here, take it" she said again, her hand still holding it out to him.
Not wanting to be rude he gratefully took the article of clothing and slid it comfortably over his shoulders, feeling warmer already.
Before he could thank her a sound in the distance grabbed both of their attention. Wolves howling.
"Looks like the locals are starting their nightly chorus" she joked with a laugh as after one howled, another one farther away would, then another would join in until one's imagination could make out their sad song.
By the time some of the noise died down the Uchiha looked where the elderly woman had been. She was no longer there. Holding the jacket close he sighed before placing his hand on the door of the hut, stopping as he did so.
Something was behind him.