For hours, all Kotetsu could do was run. Green blade clasped firm in his right hand, Kotetsu made a mad sprint through the moonlit forest. His eyes darted back and forth trying to spot the shadowy figures that had chased him out of the camp. Creeping exhaustion attempted to swallow his mind, but the fear of being caught pushed him onward. Kotetsu felt himself pulling from reserves of stamina he had never experienced before.
Eventually, the sky grew lighter as the early morning sun peeked through the trees. By that point, Kotetsu had no way of knowing how far or even in what direction he had run. His entire body ached from the constant exertion. From his side, Kotetsu heard a soft thump as something tugged free from his right hand. Looking down, he found the sword that he had furiously clenched laying on the ground, having fallen from his numb grip.
Kotetsu bent down to retrieve the shining green blade. To his surprise, there was no resistance upon lifting the weapon.
"Huh?"
Staring dumbfounded at the sword, Kotetsu tried to think through his sleep-addled state. Out of everything that had happened through the night, he had not once considered the fact that he was apparently capable of holding his blade unsheathed. His feet idly began walking of their own accord as his mind processed the situation.
A sudden rumbling noise ripped Kotetsu's focus away from his ponderous thoughts. Freezing in place, Kotetsu looked around in an attempt to pinpoint the source of the disturbance. Then, the rumble came back, bringing Kotetsu to look down at his stomach. That's when the hunger pierced through the fog in his mind. Kotetsu had idiotically skipped dinner the previous night, on account of having taken one too many of Keina's punches.
Kotetsu sat down to take stock. He had his sword and sheath, his Hyuuga robes, and his new shoulder pads. Luckily, he had slipped on his sandals out of habit, otherwise he would have been running barefoot. He didn't have his backpack nor any of its contents, no food, no waterskin, no sleeping gear, or even a spare change of clothes. He was truly unprepared for any sort of venture out into the wilderness.
Taking a weary breath, Kotetsu stood, brushing the forest litter off of his legs. Observing his surroundings with energy renewed from caution, he spoke under his breath.
"I am such an idiot."
—
The previous night.
Atsuo woke from the vague sensation of a pressure in his bladder. Laying still, he attempted to ignore the feeling and coax himself back to sleep. Unfortunately, the pressure ramped up as if sensing Atsuo waking, forcing him up and out of his tent in a rapid stumble to the treeline. Several seconds of relief later, Atsuo found he was no longer tired much to his disappointment.
"Woes of man. Wait…"
From nowhere, Atsuo's mind suddenly presented a ponderous thought: How do girls pee? Absently walking, he considered the sudden intrusive thought. Atsuo mentally recounted all of the times he nearly witnessed any girl naked, which were far and few in between. Aside from bathing, there was not much. Nothing in his memories gave a hint as to how girls might pee. Splashing his hands in a water bucket meant for washing, Atsuo continued his stroll through the camp.
The absurd stream of thoughts came to a sudden end as a small noise triggered him to pause. Standing completely still, Atsuo strained his ears, unsure if he hallucinated the sound. That's when he suddenly noticed where his stroll had taken him. Standing a distance from Kotetsu's tent, Atsuo nearly jumped out of his skin when the tent's owner suddenly appeared from its entrance. Atsuo reached up to grasp at his racing heart as Kotetsu stood and scanned his surroundings.
Watching Kotetsu for a few seconds, Atsuo realised he was standing within the shadow of a tree, and promptly stepped into the moonlight. When Kotetsu made eye contact with him, Atsuo felt an unease settle over him. Kotetsu had bullets of sweat falling down his face and drenching his clothes. His manic eyes and shaky breath led Atsuo to step forward out of concern, causing Kotetsu to take a step back. Atsuo slowly raised his wet hands in an attempt to calm the terrified boy.
"Kotetsu?"
That one word acted like a blade cutting a tense rope, sending Kotetsu flying away from Atsuo in a mad rush. Atsuo could feel as his body was tugged along into a chase, pushed on by the desire to help his brother. Atsuo could barely keep up as Kotetsu deftly passed winding tents and hopped over obstacles. The camp entrance appeared ahead, and Atsuo hoped that Dan, who was on guard duty tonight, could stop the speeding Kotetsu. His hopes were dashed as Kotetsu leapt far above and over the entrance.
Rushing past a surprised Dan and into the trees, Atsuo kept his eyes on the sprinting Kotetsu. Pushing his legs to their limit, he closed the distance and reached his left arm out, aiming to pull Kotetsu to the ground. From one moment to the next, Atsuo's entire world erupted into blinding agony. An instinct had curled his arm back toward his body in a defensive gesture, preventing the arm from being completely removed as a flash of green sliced a line along his forearm.
Atsuo fell to the ground in a heap as a horrific scream filled his ears. It felt as if his arm had been completely severed. His world devolved into pain and suffering, and his mind perilously sat on the edge of unconsciousness. Several seconds spread out into eternity, until only a vague sense of awareness was all that remained.
Moments later, that fragile awareness dipped into total darkness.
—
One week later.
Large steep hills rolled as far as the eye could see. Slowly, pine trees were overtaken by wide oaks, then ash, before the surrounding forest was completely ruled by towering redwood trees. Most anything living remained stifled and unmoving by the summer heat. Somewhere within, the forest floor crunched beneath the sandals of a boy with disheveled white hair and dirtied grey robes.
"So hungry."
Kotetsu had wandered for days on end. For a while he had followed a stream, partaking in the bounties of the forest with vigor. However, after an unfortunate incident involving a large bear and her cubs, Kotetsu had taken to the dense trees far away from the open paths. Aside from a series of ponds which Kotetsu was dubious to drink from, he had not seen many sources of water.
At night Kotetsu would rest above in the trees to not invite trouble from wandering wildlife. He barely slept for more than a few hours at a time, any semblance of peace robbed by strange and uncomfortable dreams. Luckily, the summer heat kept him warm through the night. Unluckily, mosquitos and other pests attacked him in droves, forcing Kotetsu deeper into the forests. Now, he walked beneath trees wider and taller than any others he had seen before.
Kotetsu couldn't help but to glance upward at the sprawling trees that seemed to touch the sky. The large roots of the trees proved perfect for practicing his footwork, leaving Kotetsu to almost skip across the uneven ground. He was hoping to find some untouched blackberries within the forest. His mouth watered from the mere thought of food.
A distant sound brought Kotetsu to a standstill. He had gotten used to the chirp of birds, the scuttling of squirrels, the digging of underground animals and most any other inhabitant of the forest. The one noise he had not encountered yet, which he could now hear, was the huffing of a boar.
Moving with supreme diligence, Kotetsu tiptoed around one tree, barely peeking his head to one side. There, he saw it, stuffing its face into a large bush with familiar leaves containing black and red berries. The tan-brown colored boar was barely longer than Kotetsu's leg, and ate away at the bush. Kotetsu couldn't stop the evil grin that split his face as his imagination ran wild with all the ways he could eat a boar.
"Savoury… herb butter…"
Kotetsu carefully crept from behind the tree, muttering under his breath.
"Roasted into chunks… perhaps a stew…"
Each foot found a silent perch atop the crunchy forest floor.
"Or maybe a jam… yeah, a blackberry jam and crispy boar…"
The boar now stood barely a few meters away chomping into the berry bush. Kotetsu crouched his legs, preparing to leap.
"...You're already filled to the brim with berries… I'll go with that-"
Before Kotetsu could finish his thought aloud, the boar turned and made instant eye contact with him. The two stared at each other for only a brief moment. Then, without warning, the boar grew nearly three times larger in the blink of an eye. Kotetsu fell backward with a shocked cry. Eyes wide open, Kotetsu watched as the tan-brown fur of the boar turned a much darker shade, before it bolted away with precipitous speed.
Somehow, Kotetsu had encountered a monstrous beast. He was too hungry to care. Hopping to his feet, Kotetsu gave chase. The boar had already escaped somewhere behind the trees, but Kotetsu was not so simple as to rely on line of sight. Moving quickly, Kotetsu scanned the ground and found the obvious trail left by the now larger boar.
"Being bigger just means more meat for me…"
Feeling the familiar pump of Chakra coursing through his legs, Kotetsu jumped between the wide trees until he was among the lowest branches of the redwoods. Then, he swept his head back and forth, catching the trail and hopping between branches, following the loose line from above. It was only after his fourth jump that something very wrong became apparent.
"Where did you go…?"
Somehow, the trail had ceased from one step to the next. Backing up and jumping to a previous branch, Kotetsu tried to follow the line again, thinking he had perhaps missed something. But as if by magic, the boar's prints simply vanished. Kotetsu lightly hopped down between several trees and began searching with annoyed focus.
He located the trail, and just as he had seen from above, it appeared to end between one step and the next. The only things around the final footprint were some dead saplings and a bush much too low for the enlarged boar. Kotetsu absently scratched at his chin as he stared down at the prints. Something nagged at the back of his mind, and he sat down with a whump to think on the issue. His eyes backtracked the divots in the soft mud for multiple steps, mindlessly tracing each imprint.
The realisation came as he reached out to touch one print. Grabbing a nearby stick and putting it length wise against the track, he noted the distance and moved the stick to another print. They were differently sized. As the marks found the end of their trail, they shrunk considerably. Kotetsu immediately connected where the boar went.
Forming the handsigns he had relentlessly practiced for almost two years, Kotetsu took in a deep breath while casually standing up. But right before he could expel the built-up fire Chakra, the boar suddenly jumped out from the low bushes and right into Kotetsu's chest. It smashed into his ribcage like a rock, knocking the breath right out of him in a puff of smoke and ash. Kotetsu fell backwards for the second time in just a few minutes, coughing up embers that seared the inside of his mouth.
The boar continued on its way over the top of his face and quickly dashed away into the underbrush. Kotetsu was absolutely done trying things the smart way, and began chasing the boar at full speed while angrily shouting. The two swerved between huge trees, jumped over bushes, and barely avoided prickly plants. Kotetsu shouted various curses at the boar, uncaring of his lack of subtlety and grace.
The boar dashed between two trees and hopped over an inconspicuous lump sitting right in the middle. Kotetsu glanced down at the lump, then performed a double take before coming to a complete stop. Right before him sat a pristine pile of fresh blackberries. His attention tore between continuing the chase for the boar, and sitting down to fill his stomach. His mind argued that the boar would provide a better tasting meal. His stomach savagely beat down his mind, ending the discussion.
Kotetsu sat to chow down on the tantalising berries. Grabbing a fistful of blackberries in each hand, Kotetsu stuffed his face, staining his face with dark purple juice. In just a few seconds, he managed to scarf down almost half of the stack. While his hands were automatically scooping berries into his mouth, Kotetsu's eyes wandered the forest floor around where he sat. His eyes followed twigs, fallen needles, a squirming bug, neatly tied vines, a large leaf… Then, his focus snapped back to the vines. They overlapped each other in a repeating cross, and were tied together in key places. They appeared to form a grid.
Before Kotetsu could jump to his feet, tiny near-invisible markings etched along the vines seemed to shine with a vague green glow. The vines suddenly began to squirm and rise, wrapping around and sticking to Kotetsu's body. He barely saw the four edges of the net lift into the trees above, dragged upward by several more vines. The net had him caught and upside down within seconds.
"Uwha-"
Kotetsu heard a thump below, and saw the hilt of his sword sticking out of the sheath that had somehow slipped off of his body. Breathing heavily, Kotetsu calmly assessed the situation.
"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!"
Thrashing and spinning around, Kotetsu attempted to break the vines. Each time he moved, the symbols glowed softly before the vines automatically seemed to tighten themselves. Each movement resulted in Kotetsu getting more entrapped within the vine's grasp. Eventually, after several minutes of useless rebellion, Kotetsu stopped.
His head had somehow not been caught by the vines, and with his whole body upside down, that meant he would soon be in trouble of passing out. His arms had been thoroughly locked to either side, and even his hands had become entangled in smaller root-like appendages. The vines were too sturdy to bend his body forward as well. He had been caught in the perfect trap.
Kotetsu let out a long sigh.
"Why me…"
Suddenly, from somewhere behind him, he heard a rustling noise.
"...Boar?"
The rustling got closer. Kotetsu figured maybe he could get the boar to help him down. Then immediately discarded that idea, as he knew that it probably didn't want to be eaten. That thought brought on another idea, and he latched onto it out of desperation.
"I, uh, won't eat you… anymore… all you gotta do is let me down, and I'll give you all the berries you want…"
Kotetsu wiggled his body as far as the vines would allow, slowly turning around. He twisted his neck completely until he could barely see behind him.
"Here, piggy, piggy pig-"
Just a foot away from his head was the face of a teenager. Tanned skin, hard black eyes, short flat black hair, and upside down. Well, upside down to Kotetsu.
"You're not a boar." Kotetsu stated.