OOO
Two hours later…
Naruto, frustrated and irked from his shambles of an academy lesson, decided to take a hike outside of the village's suburbs and cool off the best way he knew how; by beating the crap out of random inanimate objects. Fortunately enough, instead of taking his wrath out on the village streets or the villagers themselves, he opted to head out into the woods to kick some tree logs and boulders around. There were plenty out in Konoha's forests, so what harm was there in knocking in a few extra hours of training to relieve the tension?
The taijutsu portion of the day for him had been way too unsatisfying. Being the battery pack that he was Naruto needed a proper outlet. He was still burning adrenaline like crazy on top of the fuel stemming from his disappointment, and he needed to flush it all out as quickly as possible. So, hashing together some massive tree logs to create pendulum traps, he started off the first hour ducking, dodging and swaying between five simultaneously swinging tree trunks blindfolded. Doing this with eyes covered in a heavily wooded area was one of the many ways he was able to increase his flexibility and sense of timing, which was damn near close to inhuman already.
There was a boatload of other shit he did in his free time as well, but he wanted to space those exercises out as much as possible.
Following a grueling session of avoiding falling logs with the potential to crush him should he get hit, he then moved on to heavy lifting and hitting the posts. Really, he was doing anything he could to get his muscles to work since his fight against Sasuke didn't. Though he did admit there was a time he had once been on the ass end of an ass-kicking from a lot of the students including the Uchiha, this all happened before he realized he needed to be smarter and more creative when it came to fighting. How the hell was he able to get through all those fights he got into with tough guys on the streets and manage to slip away from Chunin and the occasional Jonin every time they came after him?
By being just as unpredictable as he was creative, that's how. He was a very flexible character so it was no surprise.
Anyway, after managing to work up a sweat and getting his knuckles filed against a post to a satisfying degree, Naruto then took to the forest to follow-up on one of his other favorite pastimes; foraging. Though he didn't seem like the type, as of late it has become one of the jinchuriki's many acts of habit.
After making friends with much of the wildlife surrounding his village and getting to know the 'ways of the woods', Naruto had been able to absorb more skills and knowledge in the forests then he had been able to in all his time spent at the academy, mostly for a fact that what he did was actually fun. Iruka was all talk and theory in his lessons. The jinchuriki was more of a hands-on approach kind of guy. The amount of free time he was able to spend with the monkey tribes and animals of Konoha's lands taught him many things; like a lot of the moves he used in his freestyle taijutsu style, how to survive with nothing at all, what plants were good for eating, what weren't, what things could kill you, what things could save your life, and by extension the ability to talk to a lot of creatures that hadn't developed the ability to commune through human speech.
Naruto knew where to go when he was in trouble, he knew how to make makeshift homes, he knew how to hide, how to run, how to swing, how to climb, how to use his feet as hands, basically anything a wild animal could do. This also explained his extraordinary fighting sense, incredible high level of timing, speed and body strength.
Believe it. He had built up A LOT of body strength over the years hanging with the monkeys.
But he didn't use it as excess. All he required were outlets, one of the many being the serene practice of digging through the brush and finding the most delicious items of forest grub he could get his hands on.
Yup. When not gorging on ramen back home, he was trying to make his own, which was always great.
Weaving himself a bag from long grass, leaves and vines, Naruto began a long walkabout of the thickest part of the woods. Scurrying up trees, digging through bushes, searching crevasses, he left no stone unturned in his search for the best things the natural world could provide. Within half an hour he was able to grab a whole sack full of stuff, even some rare goodies he was sure would sell for a good price back home. But he wasn't interested in money. All he wanted was a distraction and a way to cool off from his displeasing lesson back at school. The almost secondary natural act of scavenging made him forget all about his troubles in the village and brought a smile to his face.
However, while he was picking mushrooms from a wide clearing and humming a pleasant tune, the blonde suddenly noticed further up the hillside something out of place. Depositing what he had in his hands into his basket, he left it on the ground where it was and went over to the area in question to check out.
What Naruto found up the path was a ruined patch of land scarred from what could only be described as an intense battle. There were craters punched all over the place, chunks blasted out of trees, gashes and scars carved into the land and wood, and scorch marks burned here and there. There was also traces of blood; never a good sign.
Perplexed, the jinchuriki ran a hand over a particularly large scar in a tree before noticing some weapons deposited across the clearing.