"This location's been compromised. Let's find somewhere else to camp for the night," Naruto said as he grabbed the dead animal once again, placing it atop his shoulders with ease.
His teammates comply as the three jump into the canopy above and leap away, leaving the unconscious and injured Rain ninja alone.
After traversing for several minutes, the trio manages to find a perfect place to camp for the night. After once again placing various traps around the perimeter for their safety, Hinata turned her head to Naruto, who was calmly preparing their dinner.
"Naruto, since you did the hunting, it should be appropriate that we are the ones cooking," Hinata says softly while Satsuki slightly raises her eyebrows while staring at Hinata.
Naruto glances at them for a moment before giving a nod and slowly standing up and walking away, leaving the carcass of the deer for Hinata and Satsuki to prepare.
Naruto goes close to the tree and sits down and leans his back on the trunk and takes a small nap.
Hinata ignored Naruto napping and started to prepare their dinner. Satsuki first didn't know what to do when her attention turned back to Hinata after hearing her speaking.
"Help me with this so we can eat dinner before the sun disappears," Hinata softly said while staring at the sky, which slowly turned dark.
It was hard to see the specific location of the sun thanks to the giant trees, but with the brightness in the sky, they can roughly tell the time.
Satsuki nods for a moment and walks towards Hinata to help prepare their dinner. She wasn't against it in the first place, just caught by surprise by Hinata's action.
The next day.
Satsuki douses the breakfast fire as the members of Team 13 prepare to begin moving once again.
"Hey, why didn't you wake us up last night?" Satsuki asks Naruto as he stretches himself. The trio had obviously agreed to take shifts to keep guard over the camp. Naruto had taken the first shift and what clearly turned out to be the only shift.
"I forgot. In any case it's already done; no point of arguing it and wasting energy," he responds, plainly lying as Hinata approaches to join the two.
"That's not going to cut it," Satsuki frowns, staring at Naruto intently.
"You can't do everything by yourself even if you are the strongest. If one of us is exhausted, it puts us all at greater risk," she added, and Naruto was almost unable to resist his urge of rolling his eyes.
"Well then, thankfully I'm not exhausted," Naruto flatly responded. It was clear to the two girls it was a lie.
Satsuki gritted her teeth in frustration while Hinata tried to defuse the conflict between Naruto and Satsuki, which clearly had no effect.
"Besides, the night went by peacefully," Naruto added.
Flashback
A hand goes over the hidden grass genin's mouth, his eyes conveying his emotions of horror as he is pinned back against the tree, his teammates only a few feet away and lying dead alongside one another. A pair of ice-cold cerulean blue eyes cutting through the darkness to meet his.
"Hand me the scroll," the owner of the eyes orders. The boy complies quickly, pulling it out and handing it over. They'd been taken down by one guy. He didn't even try to call for backup from his sleeping teammates. He wishes they'd never attacked this group. A decision he'll regret for the rest of his life, assuming that's long. His pleas for said life are muffled as a firm chop to the neck knocks him unconscious.
Flashback end.
With Team 11
Kaori watches on in horror as Sasuke writhes in agony, clutching at his neck, a black pattern of three tomoe having appeared where the freak of the Grass Ninja had bitten him.
Kaori's own body is bruised and bloodied. She stared intently at the devil-like female Grass Ninja, which had its upper left side of her face burnt away by Sasuke's Fire Style Jutsu to reveal a pale layer of skin beneath a golden eye with a purple pigmentation around its contour.
Seeing the eye, Kaori realizes who the person is who attacked them. A memory resurfaces within her mind at this moment.
"I'll be taking this child with me. Her gifts will be of great service to me," the strange man in Jonin attire says as a white snake wraps itself around Kaori's helpless sister whilst her parents grip her, holding her back, tears flowing from all three.
'Guren! Kaori's younger self cries out loud.
Kaori's eyes at this moment started to tear up after remembering such terrible memories. She'd thought about this moment, and now that it's here, here she stands helpless.
'No. Not again. I won't be powerless again! '
Kaori releases a loud cry, which causes the Grass Ninja to raise one of his eyebrows before his eyes widen as a series of rose-colored crystal shards fly towards him, embedding themselves across his chest and stomach.
Kaori watches on in shock, looking down at her own outstretched hands from which the crystals had seemingly materialized. The grass ninja stumbles back in shock before his body suddenly shifts to a brown hue, melting into mud.
"So it would seem you're not too different from your sister after all? How delectably interesting," the grass ninja muttered, appearing at another branch, looking down at Kaori.
Just as the grass ninja was about to take action, it suddenly turned its attention in another direction with a slight surprised expression on its face.
With Hisateru.
Hisateru stands before the two snake summons that had attacked and separated him from Kaori and Sasuke, both of them lying dead before him. A look of deadly rage mars his face. There are only two people in this world who can summon snakes. This had better be the doing of that damned exam proctor. It has to be, because if it isn't...
'Only one way to find out,' he says inwardly as he disappears in a flash of black smoke.
Back to Kaori and the Grass Ninja.
The two turn their heads towards a specific direction where they see three Leaf Genin at the top of a branch of a tree but at a lower level compared to the Grass Ninja.
"I didn't expect for my luck to be this great," the Grass Ninja said as his lips curled upwards, turning into a sinister smile while his eyes burned with excitement.
The three Leaf Genin that just arrived are none other than Team 13. Both Satsuki and Hinata didn't stare at the Grass Ninja but at Sasuke and Kaori, respectively, especially after seeing how badly they were injured, especially Sasuke, who was still writhing on the forest ground.
Naruto, on the other hand, stared at the Grass Ninja with a bored expression on his face, but if one looked closely behind his dark sunglasses, they saw his blue eyes flared with slight interest, staring at the perpetrator.
"Sasuke!" Satsuki screams at the top of her lungs as she dashes towards her twin brother to check his condition.
Hinata glances at Naruto for a moment before making her way towards Satsuki. She easily deduces what happened, but the reason behind it still troubles her.
It was clear that the Grass Ninja wasn't an ordinary person, but it was also clear he wasn't here to grab the scroll of Team 11 but something else, especially after seeing the pain Sasuke suffer.
"You!" Satsuki stared at the Grass Ninja with her Sharingan already activated and slowly rotating in her eyes.
"Satsuki, Hinata, Naruto, leave this place; you are no match with him!" Kaori screamed at the top of her lungs, causing Hinata to frown and stare at the grass ninja with caution.
Satsuki didn't take Kaori's advice and dashed towards the Grass Ninja as fast as she could. During the dash she throws a dozen shurikens and kunai, which the Grass Ninja easily parries.
The moment Satsuki is close to the enemy, she immediately tries to thrust her kunai in her hands into the enemy's chest with the intent of delivering greater injury or even killing the Grass Ninja.
The Grass Ninja effortlessly turns sideways, dodging the attack, and the moment Satsuki is about to pass him, he clenches his fist and punches Satsuki's stomach.
Satsuki spit out a mouthful of saliva before she sent it flying in the air.
The Grass Ninja didn't have the chance of doing a follow-up attack towards Satsuki, as Hinata was already getting close towards him and preparing to shut off his chakra points.
The Grass Ninja sidesteps, making Hinata miss her targets much to the latter's frustration. After launching a few more attacks, Hinata decides to change her tactics and throw barrages of kunai towards the enemy.
'So predictable,' the Grass Ninja thought to himself as he casually parries the kunai but slightly raises his eyebrow after seeing Hinata backstep as she continues to throw kunai.
It was clear to him that Hinata, who is part of the Hyuga Clan, is an experienced close-combat ninja, so he cannot imagine a Hyuga who didn't focus on close combat and instead retreated.
Before the Grass Ninja thinks further, he notices something wrong with one of the kunai Hinata throws. The Kunai had an explosion tag at its hilt.
The explosion tag explodes, breaking the branches. The grass ninja stands and creates a loud noise that travels throughout the forest.