AN: I think If I had to explain what A Vagabond In Death was, I'd probably say it was a story about a guy who slowly gets everything he wants and has everything else pulled out from under him and its almost a case study of watching how he responds to it.

Chapter Title: Fishing Trip
Arc 3 Part 6

A week of training went by until one morning Dad said his brother wouldn't be joining us due to work as well as needing to spend time with his family, taking this as it was I decided to head to my Aunts house with Dad having also said he was being called off to do work and so seeing as my Aunt wasn't a Shinobi and had told all her students they had the month off while the exams were on, she became the person I turned to. When I arrived walking in through the gate in the large wooden fence that wrapped around their property, stepping onto the gravel path that led around all the buildings and the dueling area outside the dojo, I ducked almost without thinking as my instincts flared. I rolled to the left looking back at where I had been standing seeing two shuriken embedded deep into the wood of the gate.

"Damn I missed." A voice said from further down the path.

"Didn't you nearly scalp me once doing something similar when I was younger?" I asked my aunt.

"Probably." Ume said, raising a hand to her mouth as she yawned. She was dressed in a dark blue kimono and sandals, it was a little weird to see her dressed so casually seeing as I almost always saw her dressed in Gi or bits and pieces of armour, though I suppose I was no better I had just grabbed my Gi and weights then turned up without my weapons.

"What did you want anyway? Aren't my brothers training you for the exams?" Ume asked, turning away and motioning for me to follow her.

"I am, but Dad and Uncle Toyo got called into work." I answered back walking next to her, we slowly moved towards the dojo going past the back veranda of the old japanese style house they owned.

"What so you came to me because you're either bored or incapable of training without an adult around?" She said facing me with a smirk as we stepped into the dojo's genkan.

"Well it's nothing like that, it's because you wanted to train me for the finals and seeing as my other trainers are off then it seemed to make this a great time for you to make off with me." I said half jokingly, I was more or less pointing back to when she said she was going to kidnap me away for training.

"Oh, you're right aren't you..." her voice trailed off and suddenly I felt a horribly sharp stinging pain as my vision blacked out.

[Scene Break]

When she landed on a path that led up to the door of her younger brother's house she unceremoniously dropped her nephew she'd knocked out after he had come to her and asked her to take over his training for the next three weeks. Initially she hadn't intended on doing anything, but decided that there was something she could do that would confuse everyone and she'd get a fishing trip out of it. It had been quite a while since she had gotten a chance to enjoy her pastime of being a nuisance.

Ume knocked on the door waiting a minute before the dark skinned red and silver haired woman she called her sister opened it. The woman from the land of Lightning watched her with a raised brow as though expecting something to be wrong.

"Hello Kaede." She said with a fiendish grin.

"Ume?" Kaede asked back confused.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm taking Take out on a fishing trip for the next three weeks and don't worry I'll bring him back before the exam day." not letting the other woman react Ume turned to the boy lying unconscious on the dirt path picking him up and disappeared at a speed that most Jonin would have trouble following.

When Ume finally stopped she had been running for two nearly three days and ended up near the border to the Land of Iron, they were roughly a day from her childhood home in some of the most rural woods in the land of fire, she had chosen the spot when she knew the exams were coming up. Seeing her starting point she climbed up an enormous rock spire that overlooked the valley they were in, seeing a large river run right through it and catching sight of tens of different animals in Deer, Elk, boar/pigs and a large variety of birds. The spot had enough variety in it for her to replicate the forest of death to an effect if she wished, or at the least she'd be able to force him into survival training. That and with her parents home so close she could drag him off there towards the end of the training so he could learn about sword making and sharpening.

'Now, I guess I could go start making a camp somewhere around here and just leave him up here to figure it out for himself.' The amber eyed woman stretched for a moment before leaping off of the spire using what chakra training she had and her self taught techniques to land and start moving immediately without incident.

As she continued away from where she had left her disciple and nephew heading towards where the river had been and stopped short of it, Ume pulled out a bamboo fishing rod and a packet of bait she had brought prior to leaving the village and set herself up to start fishing while she waited for it to rain- she could see rain clouds rolling in from the south and was convinced that they'd do a good job of waking Takezou from his sleep.

The Kenjutsu instructor sat silently with a pleased smile as she fished the rest of the waning day away, it was midday when she had arrived in the valley spending the entire afternoon fishing left her with enough fish caught to feed a family for a week, though she let most of them go prefering to only keep a few for eating. It took her no longer than an hour to make a patch under a fallen tree to sleep on and be protected from the elements while her student had yet to wake from what she could tell. 'Too bad… The rain is going to start soon, guess it'll be dark when he wakes.'

Somewhat proud of herself she went to sleep uncaring of the world.

[Scene Break]

When my eyes opened it wasn't of their own volition but rather a side effect of throwing myself upward as heavy rain came down upon the world in throws, there were enormous gales that threw me around at which point I was pushed off what I was on and a sinking feeling pooled in my stomach as I felt myself plummeting towards whatever was below in the pitch black world I found myself in. Gaining some semblance of stability my senses were reigned in and I punched my hand out towards where I was sure the wall of what I had fallen from was and with it coated in chakra I stopped myself from falling further as it dragged down for a few meters.

Feeling a lump in my throat I looked around and tried to gather my bearings, all around me was nothing but darkness, the night sky was the only thing I could make out in the world, the stars shedding their light. Taking a deep breath to calm myself I reached around with the rest of my body coating it in chakra and stood up on the vertical surface and began walking down it towards where I assumed the ground was. Reaching the earthen floor below after ten minutes of carefully scaling down I set myself down on the grass that was there and sat around calming my mind as thoughts raced through it trying to understand what was happening. My Gi was soaked to the bone already so I had taken it off walking toward what I could make out as a tree with a dry patch under its branches where I thusly lit a bush next to me on fire after digging up a hole in the dirt for it to rest in rather than accidentally starting a forest fire or something similar, with a light source I was able to make out more of my wet surroundings and remembered something that I was glad for and circulated chakra around my body at which point I felt like it was more like an average summer's day despite the cool air and rain beating down on the area.

I ended up falling asleep while I attempted to dry my clothing, waking as the sun rose across the horizon and its red locks took to the sky.

Everything was damp and muddy as it slowly dried out, I sat up before standing and walking to where my Gi was laid out, picking up the pants of the outfit as they were the only dry part I put them on and left the shirt at my waist almost wishing that I had worn my full samurai getup that Ume had gotten me so that the shirt would rest around my waist properly. Speaking of Ume, this was probably her fault I imagine. I probably should have expected this and also should've not asked for her to take over. I might not even make it back to the village in time for the exams, but who knows with her.

I began walking towards what sounded like running water, my throat was dry and my stomach was rumbling feeling like an empty pit as I stumbled along through the forest I seemed to be in. Sighing to myself I stopped for a short break after twenty minutes of walking to stretch, all my joints were stiff and felt uncomfortable. Another hour of walking went by before I managed to find an enormous river, I got turned around several times before finding my way again.

The bank of the river was dirt, stones and sand. The water was a nice clear blue and looked almost fantasy like, I looked up and down the stream gathering in as much as I could before noticing a smell that threw me off, it smelt like cooked fish- so enhancing my sense of smell with chakra I followed along the riverbank until I found a little pathway that went on for a good five minutes into the forest again and finally a small fire came into view and I caught sight of a person. Coming to a stop in front of the fire I was greeted.

"Oh good you're awake, we can start the fishing trip now." My Aunt Ume said with a shiteating grin like no other.

"I didn't know you liked fishing?" I said playing along with whatever scheme she had cooked up in that head of hers. I sat down on the ground across from her.

"Why yes I have always enjoyed it, I used to do it a lot when I was younger. So do you want me to teach you how to then?" She asked with a genuine smile rather than her grin.

I gave a short nod and stood "Sure why not, though I know the basics already." I responded as she handed me a bamboo rod from out of thin air.

"Good then this should only take a minute, then we can fish the day away." Before I knew it she'd managed to displace us from the campsite to the riverbank.

Was this how fast she really was? Because what the fuck! I could never get this fast! T-this is like lightning or something- it's too fast to follow. I guess this is why she was always holding back… I wonder how she'd do against Sensei or someone like Kakashi- hell even Orochimaru. Though I suppose my aunt did mention only ever becoming a genin for the initial chakra training and never going any further with it and focusing on her swordsmanship.

"You look a little dazed, am I going too fast for you?" Ume asked, looking concerned.

"Nah it's not that… I've just been reminded of the gap between our skill levels is all." I replied and started setting up the rod she'd given me, it was actually more advanced than I initially assumed, it had a reel and mechanism for it and all. After a few minutes of telling me how everything worked she let me put the bait(cheese for some reason) on the hook and then we cast our lines.

Today was something else wasn't it? I woke up on a spire in the middle of nowhere, it was raining heavily, I still don't know why we're here and on top of that my Aunt genuinely looks like she's the happiest I've ever seen her while we fished of all things. What the hell have I gotten myself into?

Despite it all, I was enjoying myself as well though. Fishing was fun, I always liked doing it, but never really had a chance to in the village with how everything was, and it's not really like I left myself and my parents much room for that sort of thing when I was in and out of the house all the time spending so much of it at my aunts learning from her or getting roped into shit with her and my uncle. Not that I regret making such a strong bond with my aunt and uncle, after all I'm like their son more than their nephew and I wouldn't want it any other way, they treat me like someone who was the same age as them too which is great, it means I don't have to pretend I'm a rock with no brains because otherwise I'll have another five year old me with my mother Kaede on our hands. I love my mother, but she did sort of have a weird freak out moment when she realized I was much smarter than your average bear.

I wouldn't change how I acted back then, but I definitely should have handled it better, but I had been so bored and sick of what I was getting for educational material and whatnot, plus I mean who wants to sit around and read children's books in a language that they're learning at a pace that is comparable to learning new words in their first language. Like, I have a lot of trouble with Kanji, but speaking the language and writing things in Hiragana is perfectly fine- almost like it was second nature to speak it, maybe that had something to do with my being reincarnated or whatever this is.

Guess that's all behind me now anyway, so I'll just leave that as is and focus on fishing with my aunt.

I had no clue how long we were doing it for, but when we finally stopped and went back to where she had her campfire I was audibly hungry with my stomach making a ruckus that had my Aunt giggling like a schoolgirl about my starving state. We had only kept two fish each of what we caught, and I was going to be filleting them, deboning them and disposing of all the shit- basically I was going to be our glorified cook and cleaner on this trip of ours.

"You sure you don't want any of this?" She asked, referring to her hand that was filled with berries she had found, I shook my head and continued on holding the fish and the rods.

It didn't take me too long to set up a rack for the fish to grill on over the fire and get to work on gutting them, my Aunt lounged around taking a nap while I worked away at keeping us fed, it was weird though, I felt like I hadn't eaten in days, but we were probably only just outside the village or something right? How could I be starving like this? I mean I was struggling to move around too much and was pretty tired for a lack of energy. Was I really starved? What was going on?

[Scene Break]

Two days passed and all we did was fish, was she serious when she'd said this was a finishing trip? Because I did actually want to participate in the Chunin Exam, though at the same time I think it might be better if I was to miss out on them, after all Neji's presence and face still makes me think quite volatile thoughts.

Today though I had been tasked with making my own camp for while we're here so that I could revise my knowledge from the academy relating to survival as well as hunting and gathering.

If I'm honest then I can say that I remembered fuck all from my academy lessons because I was either out of class doing training with my aunt or reading on my own whilst watching everyone seeing as that became a pass time of mine, let alone the fact that a lot of the work we were given never really seemed all that relevant to Ninja life and seemed more like they were also catering for the more civilian children in the classes, despite the fact that there were several civilian schools in Konoha.

Anyway, I decidedly just left her camp and went to find an overhang nearby, lo and behold I found a couple of trees that had been knocked down and were currently being propped up by what looked to be the old stone ruins of something, now you might think that I was talking about living under the knocked down trees, but no I was referring to them leading me to the ruins in which seemed to be a crumbled away at building in which I planed to use as shelter and make a fire just outside of. It was pretty dry in the buildings remains, I would have guessed that it would have been flooded and soaked right through, but here it was as dry as a shaded damp forest would let it be- which was in fact fairly dry.

It was probably mid afternoon before I had finished fixing together some form of bed to sleep on in the dilapidated building, I had found a bunch of flax and spent a while weaving them to make something to lay on. I was interrupted as I was finishing up when my Aunt appeared from the surrounding brush and walked around what I had found.

"Nice spot you found here." She said exploring the ruins.

"Yeah it's decent… Hey Aunty Ume, do you know anything about Kyudo?" I asked to change the subject, I had been wanting to do some archery for a while now and my Aunt was well versed in Samurai arts so I imagine she knows at least something.

"Uh no I don't know much of anything about kyudo sorry, though I think there's a Kyudo dojo near my house run by this old guy, maybe you should stop by it sometime- I can take you after the exams if you want?" My Aunt asked me back, I agreed to it. I look forward to it.

The day rolled over and my Aunt had moved into the dilapidated building and was standing outside it when I woke up waiting for me. It was early in the morning and I wasn't really in the mood for her antics.

"So more fishing then?" I asked while I was finishing what was left of my catch from the other day.

"Nah something more fun today, we're going to be doing some training for a while." She stepped towards a path I had made that lead towards the river bank. "How's your water walking and fighting while doing it?"

"It's alright I suppose." I answered as we stepped onto the river.

Immediately she burst forward creating a vacuum of air behind her that threw water around in a small explosion of pressure as her foot came down on me and I lost my footing falling under the water being tossed about by the heaviness of the current she had created. It took me longer than I would have liked before I gained enough of my senses again to climb back on top of the water and stare at Ume for a moment before she burst into hysterical laughter at my soaked form I imagine.

"Right well that went far worse than I had thought it would, I thought that you'd been training with my brothers and doing chakra nature training with your sensei?" Ume finally said when she had calmed down.

"You know I am still wearing my weights right? I haven't gotten used to them yet." I explained pulling up the pants on my Gi revealing the bands that wrapped around my leg from below my kneecap to just above my ankle, after showing that I rolled up my sleeves showing the similar bands that covered from just before my wrist to before my elbow.

"Huh? But didn't you say to me that training with weights was too much for you?" She said with a raised brow and a hand on her hip.

"No, I said that training in a full suit of armour as a eleven year old was really difficult because you tried to go straight to our normal pace while I was still getting used to walking around in it and you almost killed me because I tripped into you as you were doing a thrust with the sword." I corrected, man I hated that day so much, she tried me again the next day but it didn't work out.

"Oh yeah! I remember now! It went right through your shoulder out through your back and Kaede- Kaede…" Ume trailed off giving me a pretty good Idea of what my mother had either said to her or done to her.

"You know I still have the scar from that? Anyway lets get back to this training then" I got into my mishmash of styles that I had put together from watching Hinata, Sasuke and Sensei.

"Pfft! I never thought I'd see the day when a descendant of Lightning using the Hyuuga style- Hahaha" she burst into laughter again.

AN: Sometimes being kidnapped for a fishing trip is the right thing to do.
Probably anyway.