Renewal

~30~

"So," I began. "Let me get this straight. You want to interview me?"

"Yup!" All three of the children replied, holding a microphone to my face.

"What do I say?" I asked.

"Your name, dreams for the future, and what you think of your teammates!" The girl I learned was named Moegi said.

"Okay then," I sighed. "My name is Yuuto Tatsumi, and my dream for the future is to become the best I can be. And by teammates, do you mean my actual team, or my temporary team?"

"Actual!" The boy named Konohamaru said.

"Well I guess I'll start with Naruto." I decided. "Naruto is a great guy, but when it comes to most things, he's a bit of an idiot. The one thing that you kind of have to admire, is that he never gives up and he does his best. Sakura and I never really got along when we were still in the Academy, but once we were put on the same team we learned to get along. I thought Sakura was pretty rude before, but now I see that she can be nice. She has potential with her great chakra control, but she wastes her time. Sasuke isn't very social, but he is strong. At first I think he hated everyone, but now I think he can consider us his teammates. He also is probably one of the most level headed people when it comes to stressful situations."

"Thanks for your time!" Udon said, pushing up his glasses.

I left the group of kids and headed back to where Haku and Sai were waiting, both of them with slightly confused expressions.

"Why did those children drag you off?" Sai asked.

"They wanted to interview me." I replied with a shrug.

"Well anyways, now that you're back we can go turn in our waivers and get a scroll." Haku said, holding up his form.

We walked into the tented booth and turned in our forms, the man behind the desk gave us a white heaven scroll and wished us good luck. Haku pocketed the scroll and decided to hold onto it.We left the booth and walked around until we found a gate that wasn't taken already, gate 30. While we waited for the signal to start Sai and I had a small chat about swords while Haku said he perferred using senbon, kunai, and shuriken. The loudspeaker suddenly turned on, making us all stop and stand up.

"My last words of advice to you all, don't die!" Anko encouraged. "And begin!"

All of the gates swung open and we dashed inside.

"What's the plan?" I asked over the sounds of the rushing wind.

"This place has a river running through the middle, if we can reach the river before everyone else we can camp there and wait for another team to arrive." Haku replied.

"How will we get there faster though?" Sai asked. "Everyone is running, even if we sped up we would only get a few minutes advantage."

"This may sound farfetched guys," I started. "But we could fly?"

"I can fly on one of my drawings." Sai said. "But I can only carry one other person."

"Perfect." I replied. "Make one of your drawings."

We stopped for thirty seconds, giving Sai enough time to make a bird out of ink.

"Haku, climb on." I ordered. "I'll catch up."

Haku nodded and got on, seeming to understand my plan.

"I'll catch up!" I shouted. "Now go!"

Sai's bird took off and they disappeared into the distance. Once they were far enough away I took off my vest and took flight, pulling my glasses onto my forehead like goggles. I flew over the forest silently and landed when I saw the river up ahead. I hid my wings and tail again and put my glasses back on before walking up to Sai and Haku, who had just landed.

"I'm here." I called out, making Sai flinch.

"Good, now we can set up some traps and camp." Haku said.

"But we don't have any camping supplies, or a tent." I pointed out.

"Leave that to me." Haku replied. "In the mean time, both of you should find a way to surround the perimeter."

Sai took out his scroll, brush, and ink, and he began to draw at least a hundred tiny mouses.

"Super beast scroll." Sai whispered, and the mice came to life, scurrying off in all diresctions. "If one of them are destroyed I will know where the enemy is, and if they see someone they will come to me."

"Great, then I'll go set some traps." I decided, heading into the forest.

I went all around our camp, placing explosive tag traps everywhere. If an explosion went off, we'd most certainly know. After all the traps had been placed I made my way back to the center of camp, only to see a huge igloo. Another perk to Haku's ice release, it only melts when he wants it to.

"Nice job Haku." I complimented, looking at the huge igloo.

"It was no big deal, I can do almost anything with my ice as long as I have a shape in mind." Haku replied.

"Where's Sai?" I asked, noticing his absence.

"He's out trying to find a rabbit to eat for dinner." Haku explained.

Haku and I both waited for Sai to get back, passing time by pacing the perimeter of our camp. Finally after a half hour or so, Sai came back, a dead rabbit in his hands. Haku skinned the rabbit and put it on a stick before holding it in front of me.

"Fire please." Haku said.

I did the handsigns I had memorized and took a deep breath.

"Fire style: fireball jutsu!" I exclaimed.

A steady stream of fire came from my mouth and began cooking the rabbit, once I saw the meat was cooked I stopped, not wanting to burn it. Haku took the rabbit back and made three plates of ice, he divided the rabbit between the three of us and began eating.

"Who's going to take the first watch tonight?" Haku asked, swallowing a bite of meat.

"I will." I replied, not minding staying up late.

"Then I will take watch after." Sai said,

"And I guess that means I'll go last." Haku decided. "How long should shifts be?"

"Two and a half hours at most?" I suggested.

"Sounds reasonable." Sai agreed.

"Then it's settled, Yuuto will take first watch." Haku said.

We all finished eating and Haku and Sai went into the igloo to sleep. And for some strange reason, the igloo was warm. I sat beside the igloo and watched the sky as the sun slowly began to set, a bad feeling settling in the bottom of my stomach.

I just know things are going to get bad.