Author's Notes: "12 Outdoor Survival Skills Every Guy Should Master" by Nick Davidson was a good article. The title made me roll my eyes a little, but it was a nice source of information. It can be found on the Men's Fitness website.
21.
"Okay," said Anko. "Now we get to trap making. In theory it's pretty simple: you use hidden ninja equipment combinations to surprise unwary happen-upponers."
"Happen-upponers? Is that even a word?"
"It is because I say it is! Now. I say it's simple in theory, but in reality crafting a good trap is pretty complex. There are a lot of things you have to take into consideration.
"First: are they expecting a trap? If so, you can set up a fake trap, and then once they've discovered it and you've lured them into a false sense of security, bam you unveil the real one.
"Are they ninja or non-ninja? Ninja have been trained to look for traps. If you're trying to trick ninja, you've got your work cut out for you. You've gotta step it up a notch.
"But essentially, there are only a certain number of things you can use in traps. You can use ninja wire, where if the wire is tripped weapons or smoke bombs rain down upon unsuspecting heads. You can hide explosive tags in various ways. You can use hidden containment seals to seal away anyone who walks into their line of fire. Or, if you know genjutsu, you can work with that.
"Those are the four main types.
"So, with that said, here's what we're going to do. I will have each of you hide in the forest in turn and craft a trap. The other two will sense out the person and try to discover their trap without triggering it. And then you will just pit your wits against one another until you get better and better.
"Of course, I will be on hand to pull people out of the line of fire and make sure nobody dies."
And so the girls practiced their sensing to find their teammates, which Anko thought would be useful to them in the future anyway - familiarity with your teammates was good. The traps were really easy to spot at first, and not all that complicated. But as time wore on, they learned to use cover without the cover being obvious, and their trap ideas got more complex, and they became better and better. And after that came a lot of students thinking they were about to die, and Anko pulling them away.
That was when their observational skills, first trained in stealth, really started to come into play.
Sakura preferred trigger wires hidden by leaves - hard to see, harder to avoid, and vicious. A favorite ploy of hers also became showing a false trap on the surface, and crafting a real one that was harder to see. Ino enjoyed burying explosive tags under the ground, covering them with fresh grass, and creating a hidden minefield. Anko suspected this was partly because Ino liked loud noises. Hinata preferred containment seals - not out of any sense of sympathy, but because they were easy to hide, hard to see, no mess no fuss, and the enemy could then be released later for interrogation.
Their hiding skills were also put to the test in this section - part of a good trap was not suspecting there was a ninja lying in wait for you.
And for survival training, Anko just took them out to a forest on the edge of Konoha with absolutely no camping materials and made them spend three days with her in there. She didn't tell them this was what they were doing beforehand, mind you.
"Yup, that's right," she said casually, hands on her hips. "No food, no shelter, no showers for three whole days."
The old team, the one Anko had first met, would have shouted in horror. As they were now, the girls' eyes just widened a little bit. Then determination filled their expressions.
"Okay - what do we do?"
Anko smiled.
"There are nine tenets of surviving out in the wilderness. First is finding a suitable campsite."
They stayed high and dry. The girls were taught to avoid valleys and paths where water may flow toward them. They also had to choose a campsite free of things like insect nests, falling rocks, and dead branches that may crash down on them in the middle of the night. Preferably, they wanted to be close to running water, dry wood, and rocky walls and formations that shielded them from the elements.
So the girls chose a high cliff right above a river, safely away from the ledge, that had lots of dry trees nearby but none directly above their campsite. There was a rock formation on one side of the campsite to shield them from the elements. Check.
"Second is building a shelter."
They stacked dry branches in a shelter shape against the rock formation, layering leaves and moss on the erected wall. Then they insulated themselves further with a good six inches of debris to lie on inside the shelter. Check.
"Third is starting a fire."
Anko taught them to do this using a battery - any battery would do. The negative and positive terminals of Hinata's phone battery were connected to a foil gum wrapper from Ino's coat pocket and voila! A fire was started against more dry wood. Check.
"Fourth is building the fire."
Anko viewed fire building in terms of four key ingredients: tinder bundle of dry, fibrous material (Sakura's lip balm, in this case) and wood in three sizes—toothpick, Q-tip, and pencil. They used a forearm-sized log as a base and windscreen for their tinder. When the tinder was lit, they stacked the smaller kindling against the larger log, like a lean-to, to allow oxygen to pass through and feed the flames. They added larger kindling as the flame grew, until the fire was hot enough for bigger logs. Check.
"Fifth is finding clean water."
There was already-purified water, and what Anko called death-water. Already-purified water took a long time to collect, because it would only be found in rain, snow, and dew. Death-water was the kind found in puddles, streams, and rivers. After some thinking, the girls decided to hang a coiled bundle of chain from an erected stick stand above the fire, and pour some river water into the makeshift basin to boil out all the impurities. Check.
"Sixth is identifying what to eat."
They went for fish, lizards, frogs, and edible plants. Anko showed them and gave them charts of what edible plants looked like for each region of the Elemental Countries, and told them to seal away these charts like they were weapons. "You never know," she said, "one day they may save your life." They also learned how to make multi-pronged blades out of their current spears, in order to catch small critters like snakes and fish. Check.
They slept each night after a dinner of fish or lizards and boiled water. But soon enough they had to find their way back, and the lessons continued.
"Seventh is navigation."
Anko taught them how to navigate using several techniques, including compass, map, app, and even by the sky. The sun and the north-south line were both common methods of measurement for this last type during the day. Stars were an excellent way of navigation by night. Check.
"Eighth and ninth are tying knots and sending up smoke or mirror signals for help."
Anko taught them these things - Check - but they didn't really have any need of them. Dirty and grimy but rather proud of themselves, they navigated their way out of the forest and back into the village using combined efforts no problem.