A nice little camping trip [P]

Age : 33 Posts : 159

Toyata had always wanted to become a shinobi and serve his home village and now the dream had become true. He had never wanted anything else or had he expected to become anything else and the day he graduated from the academy was one of the happiest day of Toyata’s life so far. He had finally felt like he had begun the life he had always imagined. This life or lifestyle was wonderful and Toyata loved it dearly, however as he had yet to make his mark on the village due to his inexperience and young age, he had so far only been assigned to low ranking mission basically doing chores around and surrounding the village. This was not what Toyata had wanted, but he knew that he had to start at the bottom and then, through hard work and effort, he would rise to become an important support for the village and its people.

One of the consequences of his new position as a shinobi of the village was that his days were filled with work either in the form of doing mission, sparring at the training grounds or simply trying to improve his various forms of ninjutsu. This strict routine had Toyata becoming increasingly stressed and tense, it had been too long since he had last truly had more than a moment to himself. His missed that from his life before becoming a shinobi.
It was as Toyata was consumed by these thoughts sitting on the porch overlooking the beautiful rock garden of his family home that he made his mind up came to a decision: he was going to take a few days off, pack a few supplies and leave the comforts, but stressed environment of the village and walk alone out in the landscape living off the land and camp under the stars. Reenergized by this decision Toyata sprang to his feet and walked with determination into the house and started packing. He didn’t want to bring too much so he settled with bringing with simplest of gear, an old bedroll made from woven bamboo with a thin woolen cover and food and water for two days. Just to be on the safe side he also chose to bring his shinobi kit, but wanted to leave anything else behind.

Leaving the village Toyata could almost feel also leaving all of the tension and stress that had been building up for some time behind as well. As the village gates was out of his line of sight, so did he put everything else, but the weather, the landscape and road out of his mind. This was a time to relax and enjoy his freedom.

Having walked continuously for several hours Toyata saw the setting sun and decided for himself that it was time to set up camp for the night. The surrounding area was more or less barren there was no hill around, no foliage to speak up and no water source. Having no good alternatives to a good campsite, Toyata went a few hundred meters away from the road and rolled up the bedroll. Sitting on the bamboo roll overlooking the flat and barren terrain while eating some of the food he had brought with him, Toyata felt truly alone in the world and that was incredible.

The calmness of this desert like areas with the barren plateau was wonderful. The only sound in the air was the quite whisper of the wind and the screams of a couple of vultures competing over some sort of dead animal miles away. Laying on his back and watch the bright stars was the last thing Toyata saw that day. And what a day it had been.

Toyata awoke as something was crawling across right leg, jumping to his feet and making several frantic motions he saw that it was a very, very large lizard which now scrambled away from Toyata to seek refuge underneath a nearby rock. Watching the small four legged animal run away Toyata felt his muscles beginning to relax and a wave of relief, he had feared the worst, but now he felt silly; small critters were to be expected even in the barren landscape.

Other than the earlier scare Toyata’s morning was perfectly fine. He ate and drank some more of his supplies, looking through his remaining food and water; he realized that he would either have to find a water source soon as he had consumed more than half of his water already. Food was not yet a problem, but he had to be careful not to overeat otherwise he would only have for another day. While packing the remaining food and water and rolling the bedroll up Toyata gazed out over the horizon and spotted the tops of trees in the far distance. Not wanting to stop his trip already he decided to try and reach that forest today. He would most likely be able to find water and something to eat between the trees.

During the walk further out across the barren landscape towards the far off forest was harder than Toyata had expected. He had lived all his life in the Lightning country and while he was accustomed with the heat the dry air of the area took its toll on him. Only a few hours into the day he had already more than once been forced to take a sip of water. Due to his chakra affinity for water Toyata had a bigger need for being hydrated than most other people, and another three hours into the journey he had almost completely used up all of his water. The situation was beginning to become troublesome, Toyata even thought of trying to use of water element jutsu to try and gain some water, it was test of willpower to continue. Then he saw the shadows.
Looking up from the dry dirt he had been walking on and staring at for hours, he saw the beginning of the forest with large tree providing shadow and comfort. Invigorated by the sight of shade and the possibility of water nearby, he rushed forward quickly setting foot on the forest floor and then continues in the search of water. Toyata didn’t have to run very far into the forest before he heard the wonderful sound of flowing water and looking around a large oak tree, he found a little stream. Kneeling at the edge of the water he filled his water containers and had enough water to finally remove the try ache in the back of his throat.

Having the most pressing of his needs under control, Toyata turned to the next issues; a place to sleep, preferably somewhere dry and to find some food. Deciding it would be best to find a new camp site first Toyata didn’t have to look very long or very far; only a good fifty or sixty meters from the little stream a medium sized willow made the perfect camp site. The hanging branches of the willow would keep most water out in case of rain and it was close enough to the water for both comfort and functionality. Preparing for the night was quickly done as he only had to roll out the bamboo roll and using a large branch he dug a little fire pit.

Though Toyata wanted to try and go find some food the day was already coming to an end and walking around in the darkness of the forest at night was not very ideal, thus he settled with eating the remainder of his supplies and the quench his thirst at the stream. Listening to the flowing water, the waving tree crowns and the late night chipping of the different birds of the forest made for the lullaby that put Toyata to sleep that night.

Age : 33 Posts : 159

The next morning Toyata was up as the first birds began their morning song. The meal the night before had not been as filling as one could hope and Toyata decided to spend his day finding and preparing food both for the impatient stomach and for the journey home to the village. His supplies were all but gone and if he wanted to return to the village with possibly dying of dehydration or at least return in good health, he needed to resupply.

One of the basic ways of finding food was obviously to take advantage of his surrounds. The stream was close by and a nice freshly caught fish would sure brighten up the morning as breakfast. The water of the stream was clear as glass and the slow water flow made visibility very high. Toyata made himself comfortable on top of a boulder right at the edge of the water, then staring intensive down on the water trying to find any potential fish. As he waited, he found three senbon from his kit, these small weapons should, like hit correctly, instantly kill the fish. Knowing from the experience from using water techniques that what you see looking through the water is actually slightly off and the object or fish in this case is slightly shifted. His father had once tried to explain why to Toyata; it was something about the way the light hit the water surface. To increase his chances of hitting the fish Toyata had decided to thrown three senbon at a time forming a perfect triangular form.

Having sat and watched the water for a few hours Toyata finally saw a glimmer of something interesting downstream. Following the silvery glimmer with his eyes as it came closer and closer Toyata was finally able to identify the fish. It was a Silver Salmon, having spent a fair amount of time at the fishing port; it was easy recognizing the fish which by the way have a wonderful taste. With a swift motion the senbon took air and then pierced the silver chainmail of the salmon. Toyata jumped off the boulder and into the water to grab the fish, which was now making the last few twitches before death. The salmon was a beauty with a weight of about 9 pounds, a nice weight of a fish of this species.

Having gotten the salmon out of the water and gutted it with his kunai, Toyata collected some dry grasses, twigs and branches and made a fire at the camp. Then using a large flat stone, he had found near the stream, as a frying pan. While Toyata was not a very skilled cook he had been able to find a few different edible mushrooms which would make very delicate stuffing. As he was waiting for the fish to be done Toyata went searching for some more food in the forest floor. Not wanting to burn the fish he didn’t stray from the camp and was only able to find a small bush of hazelnuts and near barren bush or blueberries, he picked the few remaining berries, barely a handful, and about two dozen nuts before returning to camp, just in time to attempt to save the fish from turning into charcoal.

The meal was certainly interesting as the fish wasn’t tender as he had hoped, but very crushing, the skin had the same color as the, now burned, wood he had used to make the fire. The mushrooms had constancy as sawdust, luckily the blueberries saved this day by giving a little flavor and freshness to the meal. Soon deciding he had had enough to eat Toyata disposed of the remains of the fish (it was mostly untouched) and once again left the camp to try and hunt. If he wanted to gather provision a single fish wouldn’t get him very far.

Toyata being born and raised in the village had no experience in hunting, but he and his father had however spent a lot of time outside trying to find different small critters and he was taught how he could use these animal trails to find water sources. Creeping through the forest with a few senbon in hand was surprisingly interesting, while he wasn’t as stealthy as he thought himself to be; he more than once lost potential prey because he accidentally stepped on a stick. Several hours into the hunt he was close to giving up, then suddenly in from of him a deer came crashing through some large bushes, without spending time to be in awe Toyata thrown the senbon at the neck of the large deer. As soon as he had moved the deer heard him, but it was too late, the senbon buried deep into its neck instantly severing the spine and the deer fell over before making a few last movements.

The deer was beautiful and just the right size. Toyata judged it to be just around sixty pounds, he threw it over his back and went back towards the campsite. As he walked back to the camp he saw that the remains of the fish was gone, it had probably been eaten by a hungry fox that had passed by. The camp itself looked exactly like how he had left it, using the wire from his shinobi kit Toyata hung the deer in its hind legs at a nearby tree. Even though he had no experience of butchering an animal, he had seen before, how it was done: Toyata started by a cut around the leg right below the joint where the wire held the animal up, then cutting down the leg towards the lower region of the animal and repeating the same procedure at the other back leg. Next was connecting the two cuts and pulling the rest of the “coat” of the deer off before cutting the head and front legs off at the outer joint. That only left pulling out the guts and throwing these away, Toyata did however keep the heart as he knew that it was very nutritious.

That night the air around the camp was filled with the smell of venison cooking. The “pan” from earlier had been cleaned in the stream and was only filled with thin long pieces of heart being fried. The main carcass had been divided into the legs and back, each pat being spit roasted over its own fire nearby. Using a little imagination and a lot of wire Toyata had invented a easy way for turn the different roasts without leaving his comfortable seat in the bamboo mat. The second meal cooked over the open fire was not the same as the first.

The following morning Toyata found himself straining under all the extra weight of the meat as he was preparing to travel home. As he started his journey home he thought of the reason he had left in the first place; he had felt pressured and frustrated by the increasing load of missions, most of which were dull and in his mind not fit to be done by a shinobi. Under this little vacation the stress of everyday life had disappeared as he didn’t have to worry about anything other than how to find his own food and the difficulty of not burning this food while attempting to cook it. Mentally he felt relaxed and had learned to be more patient and the rest in himself. Hopefully the experiences he had during this little trip would help him in stressful situation to come.

Walking through the village gates Toyata saw the wondering looks by the guards watching the gate as he went through them carrying a great deal of cooked venison. This had been a great experience and very likely one he would repeat some other time.

[exit]