Chapter 9

I was getting a little desperate, there was no meat… Me, Kakashi and Obito have been making several attempts to find some animals to eat and yet we found nothing. Well we had found something, more specifically I had but I didn't want to touch an Onbaa at all, no thank you. How could a man survive with no meat, meat is the man's romance, it is justice and life! Is what I would be spouting had I a Straw Hat, as it was, however, meat was an integral part of our diet and during this test we needed more food than average

*Rustle* I hope that wasn't the wind again, hearing all those rustling sounds was making me a bit paranoid.

Wait! Could that sound be... A quick check with my eyes confirmed it.

All three of us looked at each other and proceeded to slowly approach the clearing ahead. Obito and I had a very primal hunger in our eyes while Kakashi had his usual deadpan, but even I could see the anticipation in them with the brief glance I caught.

There it was, in the middle of the clearing as I had seen it, our salvation from this vegetarian hell. Trust me, for a carnivorous person like me to become a vegetarian, it was a huge missed-steak. It wasn't as though I was consisted on an entirely carnivorous diet either, but with the work that they made us go through, they had to give us what our muscles needed for development one way or another.

It was a hare, a pretty big one at that, good, more meat for me. Its fur was both white and brown, rather bland all said and done.

As soon as I thought of the delicious and succulent meat that was the hare I could barely restrain myself from just jumping into the clearing and eating it raw, just barely. It probably would've gotten me really sick and possibly even abandoned by Kakashi and Obito so I refrained.

Instead, I had a plan and it was genius!

I slowly stood up and started to walk into the clearing. Kakashi and Obito lurched in place almost jumping to stop me but were afraid the move would scare away the hare so they stayed put.

I came to a stop a couple of meters away from the hare and squatted down. I had some wild vegetables in my hand and slowly shook them in my hand to lure the hare. At first, it was cautious its stance small as though it would dash as soon as possible and it didn't dare to approach. With a bit of coaxing from me, a combination of being as non-threatening as possible, soothing noises and my stance it slowly approached me and started to munch on the vegetables.

After a bit the hare let its guard down slightly as I picked it up with my arms and proceeded to run my hand up and down its head and body, petting it. Suddenly my hand came to a slow stop atop its head and I began to scratch and fondle its ears slightly, all the while it was happily munching on the vegetables I'd offered it. I brought my other hand up to rub its back too and in a flash, I had them around its neck.

An audible crack followed not a second later.

"... the hell…" came from behind me and as I turned coming face to face with Obito and Kakashi, they were standing side by side and both had an odd look in their eyes.

"I got us some meat." I grinned at them. Did they just wince slightly?

"Yeah, we saw." Ah, Kakashi and his deadpan delivery is getting better by the second! I almost felt that one.

Soon we were on our way back to out man cave. It now looked a bit more spruced up with the leaf curtain closing the entrance, a few blankets again hewn from the leaves and other paraphernalia that I'd found and drawings on the walls. Don't ask what they were made from, we'll never tell.

Within a few hours, which felt like an eternity to me, Obito finally finished cooking the hare.

Well, I knew why it'd taken so long, Kakashi and I had been practically attached to his shoulders while he prepared it. Who knew that much work went into preparing food. Well, I knew now, and it was certainly more than turning the oven on to pre-heat to cook some frozen food.

As soon as he had handed it to us we proceeded to rip it to pieces and dig in. As we ate I noticed that both Kakashi and Obito still gave me weird looks whenever they thought I was too distracted to notice them looking. Bitch, I see everything and everyone! Well, my eyes do at any rate.

At the time, I thought nothing about it and soon we were all asleep comfortable off in laa laa land. Well, they were asleep, I was on watch again.

The next morning I was the first to wake up, given the fact that I didn't need to wake up, I was already up. I did, however, deem it a reasonable hour to being and thus I proceeded with my usual morning routine. I cleaned up my hair and made sure that my clothes were impeccable as usual.

My hair was easy enough actually, given its nature or some wired branch of the gamer it was perpetually clean almost. My clothes, on the other hand, I spend fifteen minutes picking clean.

Obito and Kakashi soon showed up and they looked like an utter mess, I wonder why. They also looked tired and a bit groggy so being the kind and courteous teammate that I was, I decided to help them wake up.

"Bad hare day?"

"Oh for the love of god, dammit Hiroshi it's too early for your horrible puns!" Moaned Obito as he drove his forehead into his open palm thrice over.

"Hnnn." grunted Kakashi in an entirely approving tone, the traitor.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. By the way, does my hare look good?" I punctuated this statement by swinging my hair along with it.

"ARGHHH! That's it Imma kill you!" Obito made an entirely animalistic noise as he charged at me but my good friend Kakashi held him back by the back of his shirt.

"Obito, I've got something to tell you, but you're not going to want to hare it." Obito froze in his struggles to get free from Kakashi and jump me. HIs face going pale as the fire in his eyes dimmed slightly. "I swear, sometimes it's like you don't carr-ot all." No pity, no mercy, no remorse!

"Kakashi…" Obito's voice leaked from his throat, hoarse and dry, begging for salvation or help. The fire in his eyes was growing again, at an exponential rate.

"I'm with you." Responded Kakashi as he let go of Obito. They both proceeded to walk towards me with an entirely strange look in their eyes. I decided that after looking them in the eyes and their eerily synchronized movements that discretion is the better part of valor in this case and fled.

Before I fled, however, just had to get one last pun in, I couldn't resist it at this stage, their reactions were just golden, "Hey now, don't hop to conclusions!"

I then proceeded to be the rabbit and made my getaway on fleet foot.

"Come back you bastard!" Obito screamed as he and Kakashi chased after me.

AN:
Sorry about this late post, but I overestimated the amount of free time I had last week. Hope you enjoy it as this is the last chapter of the academy test. Next chapter we are moving to the actual academy and it will be a bit of a time skip. No worries, interludes and flashbacks will be present though we do accept bribes in the forms of omake.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'm looking forward to your feedback.