Itachi influenced by Jun, played a bit with the Chakra Blade too, getting familiar with inserting chakra and using it. They soon recovered their composure on remembering they still were in the Training ground. They ran up a thick , huge tree and sat on two different branches placing their backs to the tree.While taking in steady breaths, holding his Kodachi at the ready as Itachi carefully watched the dead bodies of the squirrels being burnt by the final Fire Release : Fireball he had released at them before climbing.
"How long has it been since we entered the training ground and started fighting these kami-cursed squirrels? Thirty Minutes? An Hour? Two Hours? Or More?" Itachi Sighed
"There has to be an exit somewhere. Till then we have to keep our wits about us." Jun said
"You are right, we need to be careful" Itachi agreed "You rest for a while. I will keep watch while you rest."
"You sure?" Jun asked
"Of course" Itachi replied while pointing to his activated Sharingan "I have these, therefore I can see better"
Jun decided not to comment that even his runic eyes gave him enhanced vision. When he was about to go to rest he suddenly noticed something.
"Itachi" Jun called out. When the older boy turned, Jun showed Itachi his reflected face in Jun"s newly acquired chakra blade, which had regained its shine due to the supply of chakra which was provided earlier. Itachi saw his face reflected clearly and realized what Jun wanted to point out. His Single Tomoe eyes had somehow upgraded to Double Tomoe eyes, most propably due to stimulus of the life or death fights they just went through. It proved that Uchihas best grew up fastest in battlefields.
"Congratulations" Jun said before putting away his blade and closing his eyes while leaning against the tree. Itachi nodded silently while taking out his own Chakra blade and observing the rotating red wheel of his eyes with the Two Tomoe.
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After a while, Itachi woke Jun up by slightly shaking Jun"s head. Itachi cut the flow of chakra to the Chakra blade and took out his Kodachi. While on the other hand Jun reapplied [Gentle Fist: Chakra Scalpel] to his Chakra Blade and held it in one hand while keeping the other free for both his whip-sword and jutsus. Jun"s choice to apply [Gentle Fist: Chakra Scalpel] was both because he wanted to train with it, and because it was honestly more damaging than anything else he had at the moment to use with the blade.
Itachi"s Sharingan alerted them to one of the squirrels leaping up at Jun"s back as soon as they had travelled for a bit. Itachi slashed with his kodachi, predicting it"s path as Jun sidestepped it"s leap, from below it"s neck, beheading it instantly. Jun flashed a thumb at him before throwing himself in a flip as another squirrel tried to take out Jun"s hamstrings and slashed his Chakra Blade at it. Jun"s free hand flashing through seals in the s.p.a.ce of a second to form a [Chakra Scalpel] and using it to sever the squirrel"s spine.
Itachi struck out with his foot to kick a squirrel away from Jun before dropping to a knee and stabbing up with his Kodachi at another squirrel flying overhead. If Jun had learned anything during their time here, it was about the battle-awareness of Itachi to his surroundings. It was far too easy for someone to lose himself to the predictive abilities of the Sharingan, relying on it to warn them of danger, when it could only see what they saw. However Itachi had honed his other senses too from the time Jun last saw him, and was developing excellently as an all round Ninja.
Fighting alongside Itachi showed Jun to be mobile when fighting, to be constantly scanning the area around him, watching below and above as they moved. Jun was growing up with every moment he spent with Itachi, fighting alongside him. Jun leapt and pushed himself off a nearby tree, soaring over a pair of squirrels as he threw his Chakra Blade down into one of them, embedding it into the spine with the activated Chakra Scalpel cutting off its nerves, before landing on the other squirrel, using his admittedly slight weight to stun the beast before shoving a [Chakra Scalpel] activated leaf blade into its brain.
Grabbing his Kodachi, Itachi finished the paralyzed squirrel off before turning around and spotting the final two mobile squirrels slowly creeping along the tree branches towards them. Not allowing them to recover Itachi formed three seals.
"[Fire Release: Great Fireball]!" Itachi shouted before releasing a single fireball that was as tall as Jun was and taking a good chunk of Itachi"s chakra with it. The two squirrels were unable to get out of the way in time as they had leap at them and were caught in the flames and died soon after. Panting Jun scanned the area for any other threats and Itachi let out a sigh of relief as he only saw the remaining one of Jun"s attacks was the only squirrel alive, and even it was dying with its last breaths running.
Panting and slowly dragging their legs, both boys went deeper into the forest. Their chakra was lacking after the continuous fight and even the mental strength was exhausted. Jun took out two food pills and a water pouch to have them recover some of their energy. After gulping the pills quickly, Jun and Itachi washed it down with some gulps of water from the pouch. As Jun put the pouch away, Itachi broke the silence.
"After killing so many of these cretins and walking so deep and far, I really think we must be nearing the end of this h.e.l.lhole" Itachi exclaimed.
Jun nodded his head and said "Yes, and if we don"t find that weapon scrolls/pouch of that old amn by the end of this, I really am gonna go and kick his a.s.s once more."
Both of them gave a quick small laugh at the thought as they trudged further in.
As they walked a bit further, Itachi held a hand out to stop Jun and activated his Sharingan . He spotted a bunch of big rabbits flopping about a few dozen meters in front of them. Seeing that Itachi had activated his sharingan, jun activated his runic eyes too and noticed the rabbits. Looking up he even spotted a brownish winged squirrel sitting on trees. Jun pointed it out to Itachi and then casted observe on the two new threats.
[Killer Rabbits
HP 4000
CP 5000]
"Whoa, those rabbits have a good chunk of Chakra in them" Jun thought before focusing on the squirrel.
[Screaming Squirrel
HP 2000
CP 4200]
"Another Chakra based creature, but with low HP" Jun thought and told his suspicions to Itachi who observed them with Sharingan and could determine a bit of the information from chakra flow of the creatures, but definitely not as detailed as Jun"s Observe Skill.
"Observe Skill combined with my Runic Eyes and Sensing techniques can do most of the work of Sharingan and Byakugan" Jun mused in his mind as the slowly sneaked forward, deciding to ambush the rabbits. However as Jun activated his Chakra Sense, he noticed a squirrel hiding underneath a tree branch a few feet away from them. The squirrel , which turned out to be a Screaming Squirrel, noticed them at about the same time.
"Oh c.r.a.p" Jun cursed in his mind while grabbing Itachi"s arm while the squirrel gave a loud screech, alerting every animal around them.