SNAP
“Grr… Watch your step, Jack.”
“Sorry. It’s really hard to-”
“Shhh. Shut up. I think I see something.”
Jack walked slowly behind Tea. He grimaced as he felt someone step on his heel. “Sorry.” The guy behind him whispered. Jack looked back and saw Taro’s apologetic face surrounded by camouflaged equipment. Jack and Taro were the only ones following Tea on his first hunt for the town. The two newbies were the only ones that Tea actually approved of following him and learning how to hunt.
The thing is, though, Jack and Tea have never done anything like this before. At least, Jack has to assume Taro has never done this before. He never spoke up when they were outside the forest and being taught how to follow Tea. Those instructions being, “Follow my steps. Be right behind me at all times. Step where I’ve stepped, if you have to.” Jack was trying his absolute best to not step on Tea while following him, but his feet were like drunken troll stomps compared to Tea’s. Even Taro’s were quieter, despite stepping on Jack’s own heel about ten times since they started.
Jack just sent Taro a smile and a thumbs up to show that he was forgiven while Jack was trying to hide his annoyance. Based on how Taro’s face didn’t change, Jack assumes he hasn’t held back as much as he thought.
He turned back to Tea, trying to see what caused them to stop. Tea began to crouch down while bringing his scoped rifle up, so the two students crouched with him. Jack couldn’t see anything but trees, the leaves on the ground, and the green backdrop deeper into the forest. “What is it?” Taro whispered. Tea didn’t reply right away. Eventually, he whispered back, “It looks like a boar.”
Tea lowered his rifle into a resting position. “We can get a better view over here. Follow.” He whispered his command to the two. He began to slowly move while crouching, his steps incredibly silent. Taro and Jack tried to copy him, but just made some quiet rustling. Once they had reached the cover of another tree, Tea took a look around it to see if the boar was there.
He stopped peeking and gestured for the two to come up beside him. They went very slowly, all the while trying to see what Tea was seeing. Jack couldn’t tell if there was anything moving at all, just a bunch of trees and a single bush. However, after hearing the sound of a rustle coming from the bush, Jack looked closer to see the boar right beside it.
Jack couldn’t believe he didn’t spot the boar earlier. It went up to the bottom of his ribcage, and had a length that could be as long as Jack was tall if he held his hands all the way up to the sky. Despite its size, its steps were as quiet as Tea’s. If it wasn’t for the noise that it made when eating the bush its head was in, Jack would’ve needed a couple more seconds to see it.
Its hide bore the same color as the trees surrounding them, and its legs seemed to merge with the leaves on the ground. Despite its maw opening and closing on the bush in front of it, there was only a rustle of leaves instead of the breaking of branches and clacking of teeth. It was looking away from the bush, seemingly for predators, but it wasn’t looking in the three’s direction.
Tea’s arm began pressing firmly on Jack’s chest and his hand on Taro’s chest. The two got back behind the tree, feeling their spines straighten as the rustle of leaves beneath them seemed to have been picked up by the boar. They could no longer hear it eating.
Jack could feel his pulse start to quicken at the thought of a boar that size coming straight at him. It wasn’t just his size, either. His tusks looked like they should’ve belonged to an elephant. Jack remembers not just its size, but its muscles, too. The giant, shifting tubes on its jaw that were used to crush the wood of sticks. The muscles shifting as it began to turn towards where it heard them as they began to hide. Its legs so thick that it made this giant boar look like it couldn’t run, but Jack remembers the youtube videos he’s watched of boars running.
They could keep up with a person on a bicycle. If Jack was noticed, and the boar decided to fight instead of run, there’s a very big chance that he wasn’t going to get away.
Tea’s arm went back up to mouth, gesturing for them both to be quiet. They all stood as still as possible as they waited for the sound of the boar’s eating to come back.
They waited for 30 seconds.
45.
A minute.
Finally, the sound of the boar eating came back, and Jack couldn’t help but slump a little in relief. He looked over to see Taro doing the same thing. Guess he saw the boar, too. It was freaky how its natural hide could so perfectly blend in with the surroundings. They only moved a couple of yards from when Tea first saw it, how could they not see it when Tea saw it?
Jack threw that line of questioning away as he saw Tea prepare to peek around the corner with his gun ready. Tea slowly went around, and stopped right when he had it in sight. Jack could hear the moving, before stopping. Tea’s gun was still up, and he hadn't fired yet.
Jack could feel his heart pick up once more. Did the boar see Tea? Was Jack going to have to fight such a beast? Could he fight something like that? He definitely could give Tea and Taro time to run back to home while he fought it. Could he run away after they did?
As Jack was trying to muster up the courage to distract the boar if it decides to attack, he felt his heart almost stop as the quiet of the forest was broken by the sound of thunder right next to him. He could hear the boar squealing as its feet went from quiet to stomping in panic. He heard it move away, but it seems to have fallen as he heard a thump right after.
The forest was once again quiet.
Tea lowered his gun, and Jack could see the grin of triumph on his face. “Whelp.” Tea began, pushing himself back up using his gun as a crutch. “That was a close one.” He flipped the safety of his gun back on and used its strap to hang it on his back, aiming straight into the air. He pulled out his knife on his side. “Come on, it’s time to learn how to collect the meat.”
Jack and Taro glanced at each other, both surprised at how calm Tea was being noticed by death. Still, they followed him out to the boar.
As they walked up to Tea, he has already crouched beside the dead boar. He pat his hand on the side of the creature. “Yep,” He said with pride in his tone, “We got ourselves a young boar, here.” Jack didn’t realize the meaning of his words until he was standing right behind him. “Eh?” He heard Taro let out his confusion. Jack spoke with some sarcasm in his tone, “You’re really funny. You know that? Come on, it’s obviously an adult.”
Jack looked at the newly killed creature. Even laying on its stomach, the back was all the way up to his waist, if not just a little more than that! Tea turned his head at Jack and Taro, his voice had some irritation in it. “You think I’m some kind of fraud or something? I’ve been hunting for over a decade, son.” He turned back to the boar in front of him. “I know a young boar when I see ‘em. This one must’ve just left its mother a few months ago. They get as big as your house, don’tcha know?”
Jack choked on nothing at that. “Ehhhhh?” Taro let out his surprise, before letting out his own comments. “I know some animals got ridiculously big, but I didn’t think even regular animals were bigger than cattle.” Taro looked at Jack, “I don’t think I’ve ever worked with something this big.” Taro turned back to Tea, before he seemed to realize something as he frantically looked at Jack, Tea, and himself.
“Wait a minute, how are we supposed to bring all of this meat back? There’s only three of us here, and I know Jack is strong, but there’s still way too much meat!” Jack looked at Taro in realization before turning slowly to the boar. Taro’s right. Jack may have lifted that pallet of meat just a little under a week ago, but he still got hurt doing so. How were the three of them suppose to move what seems to be over 900 pounds of meat?
Tea scoffed, “Please, I already figured something like this would happen. That’s why I told you both to bring those bags and for Jack to bring that contraption.” Jack shifted his back as he felt the items in question. The huge bag he was carrying plus the metal thing he felt digging into his back. He voiced his complaint. “Yeah, what is this thing anyway? It’s been digging into me for the past few hours.”
Tea waved his hand at Jack, “Bring it out,” he ordered. “I’ll tell you after I teach you how to skin and butcher your kill.” Jack did so with glee, sighing a breath of relief once he took it off. Tea nodded, and began to teach the two how to treat and butcher the boar. It took about 20 minutes or so before Tea got the two to be hands on with their own hunting knives at their waists.
As they put their meat into the bags, they quickly ran out of room to put more inside. That is where Tea finally showed the two what he brought. As he fiddled with the metal thing, Jack watched as it unfolded into something he recognized. It looked like a type of sled, but much more wide. Although, it had a bunch of wheels on it, so maybe it wasn’t a sled? Whatever, Jack was just going to call it a sled. As Tea was finishing up the final touches, Taro let out a sound of realization.
“Is that what we’re using to bring the rest?” He asked. Tea nodded as he finished tying two ropes to the front of the sled. “That’s right,” Tea affirmed verbally, “Now, come on, help me get the rest on here. Even with all of the meat we took off, it’s still way too heavy for one person.” Jack and Taro stepped forward to help. As the three strained to lift the boar onto the sled, Jack used a small burst of Chakra to help with the last little bit.
The three panted after they finally got it up. “Whew,” let out Tea, “I’m glad I brought you two with me. I usually don’t have enough strength on my own to bring back all of a kill.” He picked up the ropes and threw them at Taro and Jack. “Here, strap that to yourselves. We have to walk all the way back to the truck, and that’s at least a 45 minute walk.”
As the two began to do as ordered, Jack noticed something. “Hey, where’s your rope?” Tea, already heaving his own big bag of meat on top of his gun, grunted. “Well, my back’s pretty sore from the lifting I did earlier.” He shifted his right shoulder, “I think that my shoulder’s messed up from the gun, too.” He smiled innocently at them. “You two wouldn’t let an elder strain himself to harm, would you?”
Jack and Taro looked with deadpan faces at Tea, whose strong physique could be seen through his camouflage clothing. He was also standing completely straight, with no signs of exertion other than just slightly deeper breathing and a small bit of sweat on his face. Obviously, Tea was more than strong enough to help them out.
Tea, still having that smile on his face, nodded to them. “Good! Now, follow me back to the truck.” His smile vanished as he said his next line. “I’ve gotta tell you how badly you almost messed up today.” Jack and Taro felt their hearts plummet, but still began to pull the sled of the kill while carrying their own bags of meat.
The three of them moved on through the forest, the grunts of exertion the two younger members resonating with the rustle of grass, leaves, and sticks as the sled trailed behind them. Jack felt himself get exhausted just ten minutes in, and looked to Taro to see how he was handling this. By the look and sound of what Taro was doing, worse than Jack. Taro was leaking sweat all over himself, with the beginnings of sweatstains happening all over his camouflaged clothes.
Jack didn’t know how long they were doing this, but based on the look of Taro, it was more than enough for a small break. “Tea,” Jack panted out. Seeing that Tea was still going ahead of them, he said the man’s name louder. That got his attention, and he turned back to see that both Jack and Taro were standing in one spot, panting their lungs out.
“What’s going on, boys?” Tea asked. “We’ve only been walking for 15 minutes, we’ve still got to do this for another half hour.” Jack was too tired to be shocked by how long they’ve been walking. He just told Tea, still panting all the while, “We need to take a break.” Tea just shook his head. “Sorry, no can do. The longer the kill’s been staying out in this heat, the more it perishes.” He clapped his hands twice. “Chop-chop. Get moving fellas.” He began to turn around.
Jack stopped him once more with a “Wait!” Tea just turned back with a frown on his face. Jack tried to reason with the man. “Look, Taro can barely hold himself together. I can keep going, but at least switch with Taro here. He needs a break from the pulling.” Tea just took a few moments of staring at them, before sighing. “Alright, we can take a break right here. No more than 5 minutes, though. I was serious about the meat perishing the longer we stay out here.”
Taro, hearing this, shakily took off the bags of meat and the rope tied to him. He frantically dug in the side pocket of a bag and brought out a canteen before heartily drinking it down. Jack did the same, but without all of the desperation Taro had going on.
Tea sat down, too. He spoke to them both. “Anyways, this is a good moment to tell the two of you what you did wrong.” He looked at Jack first. “Jack, what the hell is with your movements? I could hear every step you made, and if the boar hadn’t been gouging itself on its food, it would’ve heard you,too.” He hung his head and shook it. “I told you before we left. Toes first, then slowly lower your heel. You must not have understood me when I said ‘slowly’ because you treated every step like the ground was made of carpet.”
Jack just scratched the side of his face, as he felt it heat up with shame and embarrassment. He said that he wanted to be a shinobi, a ninja, but he forgot the most important aspect of being a ninja. Stealth. He didn’t really train it for the past few months because he was focusing on just getting a conditioned body. Naruto, the weakest of his class, had to condition his body for years before he left his academy at 12. Jack’s been training for just a few months.
Things like stealth, jumping from branch-to-branch, throwing kunai and shuriken (at least, something resembling them in this small village in the middle of nowhere), all of that was supposed to come after his conditioning. If it wasn’t for the fact that Dr. Pol En told him that his body was several years ahead of its conditioning, he would have a much harder time convincing himself to learn under Tea.
He had thought of using weights, like Rock Lee did, to speed up his conditioning, but Lee showed that you had to dedicate a huge amount of time to training your body like that. Doing push ups, sit ups, handstands, and other extreme exercises to get to his ridiculous level. However, Lee also showed and said it himself that his training was totally brutal and broke multiple bones in his body. Jack had no doubt that, without Might Gai as his sensei, Lee would’ve broken more than his bones and possibly crippled himself without a chaperone.
Jack had no one like that, or even access to magical healing that Medic Nins could do in the show. Plus, he was in the middle of nowhere. The village might have some barbells or small weights to curl with, but they didn’t have a dedicated sports store here. He wouldn’t be able to buy a set of weights for his ankles or rest of his body since the equipment doesn’t exist here.
Really, his conditioning was the right choice, along with learning how to master Chakra and its most basic form of Chakra Enhancement. However, he now had the time and motivation to learn how to be stealthy, especially by a professional hunter.
Speaking of Chakra and what he’s learned-
“Alright, boys! Get up, your break is over. We’ve got ground to cover and I don’t intend on giving you another break.” Jack snapped out of his thoughts, realizing that Tea must’ve gotten done berating them both and that 5 minutes have passed. He stood up, and began putting on his bags and rope. Once he was done, he looked over to see Taro tiredly just getting his bag on. He hasn’t even begun to tie the rope to him.
Jack had an idea. He leaned in close to Taro and got his attention. “Hey, Taro.” He whispered. “Just let me do the pulling. I-” Taro was already shaking his head. “N-no,” He tiredly sputtered out, “You’ve already helped me so much. Besides, even you aren’t that strong.” He firmed his resolve. “Come on, Jack, let’s go.”
10 Minutes later, Taro asked for another break. “Nope,” replied Tea, “I already gave you a break, and we can’t have one every time you almost piss yourself.” He made a nasty grin. “Although, you could just sit next to the kill and let Jack do the pulling instead.” Taro, despite looking like he was about to die, showed his resolve and kept going forward.
Another minute after that, Taro gave in and sat on the sled. “Don’t worry,” Jack told Taro with a reassuring grin, “I’ve got this.” Finally, Jack could go with his idea.
Once Taro was hanging on tight to the sled, Jack began pulling. He concentrated on his Chakra and what he wanted to accomplish. You see, Jack has been working with his Chakra on the Leaf Sticking Exercise, and has come to a very important conclusion.
Chakra wasn’t like the physical world at all.
Chakra was a spiritual energy that could affect the real world, but you couldn’t manipulate it like a 3 dimensional object. You couldn’t even give an analogy that could be a 1-to-1 to how Jack manipulates Chakra. His first ever technique, Chakra Bodily Enhancement, wasn’t even true manipulation compared to the Leaf Sticking Exercise.
The body enhancement was more like breathing, it happened automatically. However, you can breathe deeply and quickly to get more air. The leaf sticking exercise was less breathing and more like learning to contract the right hand when you’ve been laying on your arm the whole night. Again, these were analogies and couldn’t fully explain how it felt, but this was as close as he could think of.
What Jack wanted to focus on now, however, was the “breathing” aspect of the body enhancement technique.
As Jack closed his eyes and strained with his body, he focused on only using enough of the technique that his body just got a lower level of enhancement. He could feel it surging up as he took his first steps, but he didn’t want it to surge. He just wanted a nice flow. Or, really, a long, deep inhale.
He cut off the surge and felt the pulling task increase in difficulty. He tried once more, just a slower breath. Deep, but slow. As he felt out his technique, he could also feel his body move a bit smoother. The weight is just a little lighter. His exhaustion is not going away, but is also not getting any worse.
Jack opened his eyes and made sure to watch the ground as he marched forward. His “breath” just kept inhaling. That’s why Jack couldn’t give a good analogy to Chakra, because it doesn’t work like how third dimensional objects do. He could “inhale” as much as he wanted to until his Chakra gained a “strain” or “cramp” to it.
As he followed Tea, he soon forgot how much time sped by. He just felt an almost debilitating amount of weight trying to pull him backwards, but he was still just strong enough to put one foot in front of the other. Trees sped by, noises were heard, but Jack just focused on Tea’s figure. He could feel his Chakra wavering, his “inhale” desperately needing to stop. He just kept moving forward.
Then, finally, Tea stopped. It took Jack a few more steps to realize this, but he finally let go of his “inhale” when he did. He panted, sweat dripping down his face and his entire outfit feeling like it was soaking wet. He looked down, and realized that it was close enough. His body enhancement did more than just make his body stronger, it enhanced everything about the body.
His sweat production went up, as well as his blood pressure and heartrate, but it also enhanced his durability and recovery, too. This meant that he could keep it up for as long as his Chakra could, which wasn’t long when he went “all out”. Now, though? Now, he can determine just how much stress he can put his Chakra under before it gave out on him. For something like pulling a sled full of meat and Taro, he can now give his body enough of a boost to last almost half an hour compared to his “all out” best of 3 minutes or so.
Jack looked back at Taro, who looked at him with awe. Then Jack looked down at the weird sled. If that sled didn’t have those small wheels, then Jack definitely couldn’t pull both Taro and the corpse. It reminded him of pushing a dead truck with his dad when he was young. That truck easily weighed almost 3000 pounds, but the wheels allowed the average man to push it down roads. The same thing went with the weird sled.
Jack turned back forward, and saw Tea’s face. He was looking at Jack with both awe and surprise. “Jack,” Tea started, “You are one strong guy. I didn’t last nearly as long as you did when I first started out. I figured you would’ve been tired 15 minutes ago and I would be forced to switch you two.” Tea crossed his arms with a bemused and proud smile. “Well done.”
Jack just sent him a thumbs up as he panted. Tea shook his head with a chuckle under his breath. “All right, Jack. You did more than enough today. Take a break while I and Taro here get the whole thing in the back of the truck.” Jack answered by collapsing onto his butt where he stood. He was feeling thirsty and hungry. He took out his canteen to get something to drink.
Tea walked right past him. “All right you lazy bum, get up and help me with this stupid boar.” He commanded Taro. Jack heard a “Yes, sir!” as he took off his back pack and rope and laid flat on his back.
‘Man, this feels amazing.’ Jack thought to himself. His back and muscles felt like gooey sludge and his head was a bit foggy. He looked at the sky and saw the clouds overhead. ‘Hey, that cloud looks like… Like…’ Jack fell asleep. He would be woken up later to get in the truck before falling asleep once more.