Graduation Season

What are the characteristics of the Land of Fire? Probably the abundance of forests, mild weather, and comfortable natural environment. It's precisely because the Land of Fire has such favorable conditions that it's coveted by its neighbors.

The Land of Wind is arid with sandstorms, the Land of Earth is desolate, the Land of Lightning is mountainous, and the Land of Water keeps to itself, isolated overseas—only the Land of Fire has the bearing of a great nation.

Kaede moved swiftly through the trees, rapidly approaching Konoha.

Carrying Orochimaru's secret letter, he needed to get back to Konoha as quickly as possible to hand it to the Third Hokage. But using the Flying Thunder God had its limits. He'd first flown from the camp to another location, then to this area—already multiple ultra-long-distance teleportations.

He needed to recover his strength and ease the discomfort from long-range spatial travel before he could teleport again. That's why he was traveling through the forest—to work out the numbness in his body and look for something to eat.

His eyes swept quickly through the woods, searching for anything to fill his stomach. No one was watching him now, and he was deep in the Land of Fire with no danger around. Filling his belly was the top priority—why suffer needlessly?

Sure, he had Soldier Pills from the village on him, the standard ninja rations that could restore chakra and stave off hunger, but who'd willingly eat that stuff if they didn't have to?

Dry and bitter with a medicinal taste, it had a slight sweetness after chewing, but it felt like eating wood shavings—rough on the throat.

Kaede picked his moment. As he leaped, lightning flickered between his fingers, and a thin bolt of lightning shot toward a distant patch of grass. A flash of blood appeared among the weeds.

Pushing the grass aside, a fat white rabbit was kicking its legs, blood seeping from its mouth, clearly about to die. Pierced through the head by [Thunder Flash], it was a sure kill.

"Haha, such a cute little rabbit—of course, skinning it and roasting the meat is the tastiest!" Grabbing it by the long ears, he lifted the rabbit and slit its chest open with a sharp kunai.

Through the opening, he pushed out both hind legs, pulled, and the entire rabbit skin slid up to its neck. With practiced skill, Kaede cleaned the rabbit, removed the entrails, sparked electricity between his fingers to light the firewood, and started roasting the rabbit.

Then he took prepared seasonings from his sealing scroll and sprinkled them on. The golden rabbit meat gave off an aroma that drifted through the forest.

"Today's a good day..." Kaede hummed a tune, happily turning the roast. Hunger and the fragrance made his taste buds secrete saliva, and he couldn't stop swallowing.

"So fragrant! Soldier Pills can't compare to roast rabbit." Seeing it looked good, Kaede twisted off a hind leg to test the taste.

His ears twitched as he heard something moving through the forest. Instantly, Kaede put the leg down, leaped into the treetops, and let the dense leaves hide his body, lowering his presence and camouflaging himself.

The sound of movement didn't seem like an animal crawling on all fours—it was more like the footsteps of a human walking on two legs. Either a monkey or a person. If it was a person, during a secret mission, he naturally had to be cautious and avoid contact as much as possible.

"Lin, hurry up, the smell's getting stronger." A boy's voice was anxious and excited, forcefully pushing through the thick grass toward the source of the aroma.

Then a clear female voice rang out, saying, "Obito, slow down. In a place like this, it's better to be careful, right, Kakashi?"

"Hmm~" Wearing a mask with a bored look, he walked forward with vacant eyes.

Lin looked a bit worried, stopped in her tracks, and watched Kakashi walking ahead on his own. She clasped her hands in front of her chest as if hesitating about something.

"Wow—it's roasted meat! Lin, Kakashi, come quick, I found roasted meat!" Obito, holding a rabbit leg, waved at Lin and Kakashi as they emerged from the grass.

He ran over and eagerly handed the rabbit leg to the girl. Lin instinctively reached out to take it, planning to let Kakashi try it first.

"Don't eat it." Kakashi assumed a combat stance. In this remote wilderness, the meat was clearly freshly roasted, yet no one was around—meaning the person was hiding.

But he couldn't sense any trace of anyone here. The other party must be a formidable ninja too, and he couldn't afford to let his guard down. With the current tense situation, whoever appeared in a place like this might not be a Konoha ninja.

"I poisoned the meat, Obito. Are you sure you want to eat it?" Kaede's faint voice came from the treetops. He looked down resentfully at Obito, who was already gnawing on the rabbit's front leg.

Eating food of unknown origin—this kid was still a reckless fool.

Kaede turned to Minato, who had appeared behind him with a kunai already at his neck, and said, "Long time no see, Minato-brother." Sure enough, he was the fastest man in the Shinobi World. Kaede had just snapped out of his confusion at seeing Kakashi and the other two here when he sensed the anomaly behind him.

Minato had appeared silently behind him, the kunai raising goosebumps all over Kaede's skin.

Putting away the kunai, Minato jumped down from the treetop with Kaede. "Kaede, shouldn't you be with Jiraiya-sensei?"

"I need to return to the village to deliver a letter. I stopped here to rest."

"Kaede!" Lin greeted him shyly.

"It's you! You scared me." Obito, who had frozen in place at the mention of poison and was about to make himself throw up, relaxed when he saw it was someone familiar and started eating again, looking very hungry.

"Kakashi, long time no see," Kaede took the initiative to greet Kakashi.

The listless Kakashi wouldn't initiate conversation with anyone.

"Hmm~" Kakashi.

Kaede grinned and said, "Minato-brother, shouldn't you be on the Land of Lightning defense line? How are you with these three?"

"Over in the Land of Lightning, the Cloud ninja are fighting the Rock ninja. Nothing major. Coincidentally, the village's Ninja Academy students graduated this year, and the Third Hokage assigned me as a Jonin Instructor.

These three are my students." Minato said with a cheerful smile.

Jonin Instructor? Graduated?

"Doesn't graduation happen in June? It's not that time yet, is it?" Ninja Academy graduations had a set schedule, and he remembered it wasn't the right time.

Lin explained quietly, "Because of the outbreak of the war in the Shinobi World, this year's graduation exam was moved up. We actually graduated quite early. We've just been doing simple missions in the village before this. This is our first time leaving the village for a mission."

"Hmph~ I, the great Uchiha Obito, will definitely surpass both of you. I'm going to become Hokage, so don't think being early graduates makes you so great." Obito, having finished the front leg, had his strength back and didn't even breathe hard when talking.

Kaede divided the rabbit, gave the head to Obito, took ground salt from his pocket, sprinkled it on, and said, "There, eat up!"

"What's this?" Obito asked curiously.

"This is the antidote. I told you earlier, didn't I? I poisoned this meat. Didn't you hear?"

Obito's hand holding the rabbit head froze mid-air. He turned his head with difficulty and asked, "You... just now, you weren't scaring us?"

Kaede smiled like a sly wolf and said, "Obito, I wasn't sure who was coming. To keep my hard work from going to waste, I naturally had to take some precautions. Poisoning is the cheapest method. From now on, don't eat food of unknown origin, got it?"

"B-but... I already ate it!" Obito's face crumpled. He gripped Kaede's hand tightly, looking at him with pleading eyes.

"Quick, give me the antidote! I haven't become Hokage yet. I can't die."

Obito's eyes were watery, looking like he'd cry if Kaede didn't give it to him.

Kakashi, sitting beside him, glared at him with dead fish eyes and slowly said, "Idiot, that's salt. There's no poison at all."