Foodies' Hunt

"We found the target. He's alone—it's Lord Jiraiya."

In the dense forest, the cataract... no, the Byakugan boy spoke in a low voice. Of his two teammates, one was the round-bodied Dōton Akimichi, while the other looked utterly unremarkable. Still, judging by his steady expression, he was no weakling.

"Dōton, the two of us will attack head-on. Xun, circle around and try to strike from behind. We don't know how much strength Lord Jiraiya's clone retained, so we can only test him first." Hyuga Tenzan laid out the strategy, and the three slowly crept toward Jiraiya.

"Little brats, how could Lord Jiraiya possibly be fooled by such petty tricks? Too green! Far too green!" Jiraiya laughed loudly, sitting on a tree branch and looking mockingly at the three kids sprawled across the ground.

Hyuga Tenzan panted heavily, forcing a bitter smile onto his face. Was this the gap between them?

Clearly, this shadow clone only possessed the chakra of a genin, yet Jiraiya had defeated them with effortless ease. His Gentle Fist had not even brushed the corner of Jiraiya's clothes.

Elsewhere in the forest.

Orochimaru strolled leisurely through the woods. Behind him, four children lay collapsed on the ground, their faces utterly lifeless. Who knew what torment they had endured to be worked into such a miserable state?

On the first day, four of the six teams were defeated.

On the second day, one team accidentally ate poisonous mushrooms. Fortunately, the slugs Tsunade had arranged provided timely treatment, so no lives were endangered. Still, they had to withdraw from the training and were sent to Konoha Hospital to recover.

On the third day, three teams were pushed to the brink of collapse one after another, forcing them to be removed from the exercise grounds.

Thus, before even half of the week had passed, only two teams remained, with seven people total.

But on second thought, they were all Ninja Academy students—just seven- or eight-year-old children. They still lacked a proper understanding of the dangers inherent to being a ninja. It was only natural that they could not endure this kind of training.

"Tonight's dinner will be this big fellow." Katsuki hid behind a tree trunk, poking his head out to stare at the black bear over two meters long. He swallowed hard. So much meat.

Today was already the fourth day. Over the past three days, they had spent most of their time hovering on the edge of hunger. There was no shortage of prey in the forest, but filling the stomachs of five people was no easy task. A few pheasants or rabbits would be stripped clean by the group in an instant, leaving not even bones behind.

Moreover, moving through the forest consumed far more stamina than any of them had imagined. Danger lurked everywhere: poisonous insects and wild beasts could leap out at any moment. They had to remain on constant alert, and even at night they had to take turns standing watch. These past few days had made them deeply understand that being a ninja was nothing like the glamorous image they had imagined.

Danger was a ninja's closest friend.

"I'll keep that big guy occupied from the front. You find an opening and attack its weak points." Katsuki rubbed his hands together, already unable to resist throwing the creature into a pot. They had tried catching fish before, only to find that the fish in the creek were palm-sized. After removing the heads and tails, scaling them, and gutting them, there was not even enough meat to fill the gaps between their teeth. The effort spent was completely disproportionate to the reward, so they had turned their attention to these larger creatures.

Clone Technique.

Katsuki charged out, forming hand seals as clones appeared around him one after another. More than twenty figures, all with red hair and black clothes, formed ranks before and behind each other, surging toward the forest predator like a tide.

"Roar!"

The black bear was nearly three meters long, its massive body resembling a small mountain. Its black fur gleamed, and its two spread paws were like millstones. The huge beast noticed the "monkeys" daring to provoke it and let out an enraged roar. Its foul breath swept over them like a gale, instantly blowing away more than half of the twenty-plus clone phantoms.

The Clone Technique was simply too low-level. The clones it created were little more than bubble-like illusions, easily popped by even a slightly stronger force. Of course, that did not mean the Clone Technique was useless. In the hands of an expert, it could still serve a purpose.

Put plainly, ninjutsu was only a tool, wielded by people. What effect it could produce depended on the skill of its user—it varied from person to person.

Even after more than half his clones were blown away by the black bear, Katsuki did not lose heart. He formed seals, and another large group appeared with a rush. Yet he sighed inwardly. If only I had the Shadow Clone Technique. That's the ninjutsu best suited for the Uzumaki Clan, the one that could draw out the Uzumaki Clan's monstrous talent.

Unfortunately, he was still too young. The body of a seven-year-old could not withstand that kind of strain. It was not as though he had never considered using shadow clones for training, but his underdeveloped body probably could not bear such a burden, even with the enhancement of the Human-Human Fruit.

Developing the Human-Human Fruit required time. If he truly exceeded the limits of the Uzumaki Clan bloodline and the Human-Human Fruit, he would die just the same. The fruit had merely helped him open a door; he still had to walk the path himself. There was no such thing as something for nothing in this world. More often than not, hard work yielded nothing.

The black bear's millstone-like paws swept down with a howl. Before Katsuki's clones could even be struck, the gale kicked up by the paws was enough to obliterate them. After a single sweep of both paws, the bear discovered in confusion that the "monkeys" had vanished.

How could it accept that? The black bear was left somewhat dazed, then immediately grew furious. It believed the monkeys had played some trick to deliberately mock it. Roaring in rage, it launched a frenzied attack, swatting wildly in every direction with its paws and wiping out every false illusion. The more phantoms it destroyed, the more its rage soared.

Katsuki's real body hid among the clones, constantly forming seals to create more of them and sending them forward in formation to die. Yet he did not dare approach the huge beast himself.

After using the clones to test it, he found that just the wind from its paws made his cheeks ache. If he actually took a hit, he figured he would be bedridden in the hospital for at least three to five days. One slap from this bear would definitely shatter a person's bones.

But he had never intended to fight it head-on. What he needed to do was drain the black bear's stamina, draw its attention, and create opportunities for Minato, Otoha, and the others.

For example, now. The black bear swept one paw diagonally across its body, extinguishing six of Katsuki's clones in one breath. But because it had used too much force, it lost its footing, and its mountain-like body swayed.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two shuriken shot out from the bushes behind Katsuki, passing over his head and accurately piercing the black bear's two eyes. Blood blossomed in an instant!

"Roar! Roar! Roar!"

The black bear howled madly. Blinded in both eyes and wracked by agony, it was seized by an even stronger sense of impending doom. It frantically swung its paws, but unable to distinguish its surroundings, it failed to notice a broken log thrown beneath its feet. With a crack, the log was crushed beneath its thick bear leg, followed by a thud as the black bear toppled over.

"Splat!"

"Splat!"

The two sounds came less than a second apart. Minato and Kushina burst out from the left and right, plunging the kunai in their hands deep into the black bear's neck.