The balmy breeze, the gurgling clear creeks, and the bright green treetops that dappled the sunlight. Everything was so idyllic in the Land of Hot Springs. Rugged hills and icy lakes were all Kimimaro had ever known back in his bleak misty homeland.
They had been following a broad trail through the forest for a couple of hours. Naruto was bragging about how he ran non-stop and so fast that he got out of the Land of Fire in two days, including how he didn't need an alarm clock to get up early, and how he only slept for 5 hours and ate 2 cups of instant ramen each day but still ran at top speed. Kimimaro nodded and praised Naruto's achievements in response, but he didn't feel like sharing what his journey was like. Choosing the cheapest and shortest route, he took the ferry that plied across the treacherous straits within the remains of Uzushiogakure and felt nauseous as the creaky ship struggled to pass through numerous whirlpools.
Naruto stopped talking when his stomach grumbled.
"I'm hungry."
nods Let's take a rest and grab a bite," Kimimaro said and laid down his knapsack beside a tree.
Naruto offered to go look for food, "I can go catch some animals for meat, I know how to hunt."
"Then I'll gather materials to make a campfire. We'll meet here again in…"
"Thirty minutes," Naruto said and went off confidently.
"Alright."
Kimimaro began searching. The ground looked a bit damp, so finding dry leaves and twigs was a little difficult, but Kimimaro was experienced in starting a fire where everything is wet. Spruce, fir and pine needles can stay relatively dry due to their shape and are therefore good for tinder. Adding birch bark to the sticks and branches make for highly flammable kindling. Oak is best suited for firewood because it burns slowly. Just shave off the surface to expose the dry interior.
"Hey, Kimimaro! Look what I've got!" Naruto came running back with a dead bird in one hand and a nest in another.
Kimimaro's movement stopped just before he was about to deal with the oak logs he had brought back. He almost shot out a knife straight from his palm. No, he can't reveal his ability under any circumstances. Even if the boy seemed nicer than anyone he had met.
"I found a wild chicken!" Naruto beamed with pride as he showed Kimimaro a ruffed grouse and a nest of bird eggs.
"Wow, you're good at hunting," Kimimaro didn't expect that Naruto would come back quickly.
They began cooking right away.
"Wait, first dig two perpendicular ditches, then build the fire at the center of the cross," Kimimaro said. "That way the fire will be well ventilated and adaptable to any wind direction."
"Ignite the base of the pile of tinder from here, the fire climbs up and moves faster from the windward side," he added when Naruto struck a match.
"This fire is bigger than what I can make! You're so smart, Kimimaro!" Naruto said as he admired the dancing flames.
"It's nothing," said Kimimaro.
After roasting the grouse and cooking its eggs above the fire in a wooden pot that Kimimaro carved out with Naruto's kunai, they forgot the cataracts of perspiration running down their backs and finally sat down to eat. What made the food delectable was not only hunger, but also happiness that came from sharing a meal with someone. The two boys enjoyed each other's company under the gently swaying canopy.
The next two days were about the same. Kimimaro and Naruto kept heading northwest. Whenever they paused to look for food, Kimimaro would show Naruto tips on how to forage in smarter ways: setting traps for crayfish and minnows instead of grabbing them by hand, stepping on the bottom branches when picking clumps of blackberries among the sprawling brambles to avoid getting scratched up by their thorns, and identifying beech trees to find chanterelles beneath the fern groves that grow beside them.
"How do you know they are safe to eat?" Naruto asked warily.
"Chanterelles are perfectly edible. They have this golden color and funnel-like shape. You can only find them beside certain trees but they never grow directly on wood."
Kimimaro plucked one and turned it upside down, "Instead of gills, they have decurrent forked folds. And if we split them in half…"
He tore it apart, "You can see that the stem is solid instead of hollow, and the flesh is white. Most importantly, they smell like apricots."
Naruto sniffed and marveled at the meaty mushroom that gave off a fruity aroma, "Yum! I bet they're tasty!"
They collected the chanterelles in their bags to save for later and set off again. Naruto started humming a little tune.
"As long as I'm with Kimimaro, I'll never have to worry about dying from poisonous food," he said gleefully.
Kimimaro looked at Naruto a little flattered. Maybe something good came out of the cramps and diarrhea he got from eating false chanterelles that time.
As stars twinkled in the navy blue sky, Kimimaro and Naruto settled themselves on a patch of soft grass.
"Traveling is fun," Naruto sighed in content with his hands tucked under his head.
"Yeah." Never had Kimimaro imagined that he would feel safe roving the world, and that the sense of security came from being with a kid younger than himself.
Something glowing in the darkness caught Kimimaro's eye. It was a striped wintergreen. Two drooping white flowers bloomed at the top of a single peduncle that arose from a whorl of 3 lanceolate leaves. Each fragrant flower had 5 recurved petals, resembling a crown. Kimimaro had thought the striped wintergreen only grew solitary flowers, and identified himself with the short evergreen herb. But today he discovered that two or more flowers can grow on one stalk, which he found enlightening.
"Naruto, do you like flowers?" Kimimaro turned his head back to the boy lying next to him, but Naruto was already fast asleep.
"I do. Especially when they grow in clusters," Kimimaro said to himself.