It was on the second night of travel to the Land of Grass that Kosuke and I had set up a makeshift camp out in the forest. I had just come back from hunting food, carrying two rabbits and a boar, and Kosuke had made a fire.
"Watch closely, Haruka," Kosuke said, unstrapping the giant pan, as well as a few other cooking utensils from his back, "I'm about to show you some of my prized secret techniques."
"Oh?"
Kosuke unsheathed a small sword, hidden amongst his various cooking implements. It was almost comical how the utensils were larger than his sword. The older man breathed in deeply, holding his sword with both hands.
The animals were tossed into the air, neatly skinned and gutted with those parts falling off to the side, and the parts that were to be eaten falling perfectly into the pan which Kosuke held over our fire.
"Cooking is an important skill, Haruka," Kosuke explained as he pulled out small vials of spices from his pockets, "Of course, you could just cook something straight, just good enough to be edible. But good food is, and always will be a morale boost."
I watched, curious, as he deftly cooked the animals.
"It doesn't even take much longer, just needs a bit of extra effort."
In less time than I had expected, Kosuke had whipped up a heavenly smelling meal out of the animals that I had brought back, which tasted suitably delicious. As we ate, Kosuke and I chatted.
"We're almost there. We're actually already in the Land of Grass. We'll reach Kusagakure by noon tomorrow, probably sooner," Kosuke leaned back, "We're actually a day ahead of schedule. The merchant to whom we're supposed to be delivering actually shouldn't be in the village yet."
I raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
Kosuke nodded, "Really."
"So what will we be doing in the meantime?"
He shrugged, "Wander around? Be a little touristy, I suppose. Couldn't hurt to take a look around."
And survey and estimate the relative prosperity and shape of the country based on the condition of the village.
"I see."
"Ooh, and that reminds me," Kosuke turned around and dug through his pack, "I forgot to give these to you earlier. You'll need these in a little bit, once we get to Kusagakure."
In Kosuke's palm was a pair of small, red-tinted, circular sunglasses.
"To cover your eyes. They give you away too much. Kusa isn't our enemy, really. But I think it'd be best if as little people knew there was a Hyuuga coming through as possible."
Most of my clan would scoff at the idea of covering up their eyes. We were fiercely proud of our eyes, our very own bloodline, after all. To cover them up was, well...
I took the sunglasses, to Kosuke's smile. They were rather small, so much so that I could comfortably keep them perched on the tip of my nose if I didn't want my eyes covered, and I could push them up if I did need to hide them. A minuscule, thoughtless application of chakra would keep them on my face even in a tough battle if need be.
"I'll take the first watch," Kosuke said, winking at me, "We probably won't need one, considering that this isn't really a dangerous area nor are we doing a dangerous mission, but it's good to practise. I'll wake you up for your shift."
Kosuke woke me up at dawn the next morning for my "watch."
The first full night of sleep that I'd had in weeks.
Where Konoha was rounded and warm, Kusa was sharp and breezy. It was, I suppose, pleasant in its own way, but it was not home.
Kusagakure was unique in a number of ways. Its position sandwiched in between the two juggernaut powers of the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth meant that it had to align itself very carefully, lest it end up as the Land of Rain, similarly but somewhat worse positioned, did, war-torn and ugly.
But unlike the Land of Rain, Kusagakure was masterful with diplomacy, managing the impossible task of being sort of allied with everyone, and not quite enemies with anyone. It wasn't quite the true neutral party of the Land of Iron, but it was as good as good as could be done.
It had a distinct culture of its own that differed tremendously from Konoha's. Where the Land of Fire's mild climate bled over to its citizens, making them in general rather amicable, in Kusa everyone walked briskly and paid no attention to those around them. It was a strange feeling.
Architecturally, well...
Tight, thick, and dangerous forests constricted the village, making buildings climb more upwards than sideways, packed tightly together. Unlike Konoha, where when the First Hokage was growing the forests, he had the foresight to have a sizeable clearing for his future village, Kusagakure did not have that luxury.
Which made for buildings like the hotel in which Kosuke and I were checking into that we were planning on staying in for that night. Our room was perhaps eight storeys up, which really was the average building height for the ones in Kusa, far higher than the norm.
"Turn on your Byakugan for me, will you Haruka?"
"For what?" I asked, obliging.
"Get a general headcount of the number of shinobi in the village. Observe what could possibly be threats. There shouldn't be any, but it couldn't hurt to check. Good practise, at least."
"My range doesn't extend to the entirety of Kusa. I can maybe cover half to three-quarters of the village."
"That should be sufficient for a rough estimate," Kosuke replied easily.
"If you say so."
I scanned over the portions of the village that I could see with my Byakugan for a minute, the eyes granting me a limited sort of omnipresence within the visual range of my eyes. I counted the headbands and developed chakra systems to count ninja.
Two... four... six... eight... ten...
I relayed the information to Kosuke, who nodded his head and stroked his chin at the intel. I continued counting. Kusa had quite a bit fewer ninja than Konoha did, but that was to be expected. It was about half the size.
Twenty... twenty-two... and...
I squinted even though I knew it would not help. This was potentially very, very bad.
I sighed.
"And four from Iwa."
Thank youuuuuuuu