Anyway, before I start to train, I need some food." He muttered. "I seriously need to find a river or an animal somewhere."
A river would be better, he thought.
After jumping from tree to tree with his newfound tree-walking abilities, Yamato eventually came upon a large clearing. He immediately started making his way toward it, hoping there would be an animal or a river waiting for him on the other side.
There was a river there. The sight of it sent a wave of relief washing over him, and he let out a sigh.
Thank goodness. It didn't take too long.
He paused for a moment at the bank and then decided to strip off some of his clothes. His outfit was nothing remarkable: a plain black t-shirt, short pants, and standard ninja shoes. Nothing about him screamed warrior, even though he was one.
Yamato leapt into the river, scanning the water for fish. Luckily for him, there was an abundant amount of them darting between the rocks. He wondered briefly why this stretch of river was so full of life, but pushed the thought aside and got to work. He stretched out his hand to catch a nearby fish, straining with the effort, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't manage it alone.
Then it hit him.
"Wait, don't I have the Shadow Clone Jutsu? I could just use that."
He formed the hand signs, and with a familiar rush of chakra:
"Poof."
And there it was. A perfect replica of Yamato stood before him, perfectly clean and blinking in the shallow current. The original found himself momentarily stunned, caught off guard by the sight of his own face looking back at him, black hair, pale skin that could pass for an Uchiha's, and golden eyes that burned like the sun trapped behind glass. There was something deeply strange about staring at someone you didn't know, but you knew that was actually you
A.N: "Did that make sense?"
After a few seconds, Yamato shook it off and got back to business.
"Help me with the hunting," he said, nodding toward the deeper water.
"Yes, Boss," the clone replied without hesitation.
And so the two of them got to work. Together, they moved through the river, and before long, the original Yamato had managed to pull a decent catch of fish from the water.
After climbing out of the river, they set the fish down gently on the bank. Yamato turned to the clone and gave his next order. "I need some wood. Go to that forest and use the Wind Jutsu, Wood Cutter."
The clone nodded and did exactly that. The Wood Cutter Jutsu was one of the few techniques the original Yamato had taken the time to fully memorize, and the clone carried it out faithfully. But after some time working through the trees, the clone flickered and dissolved into a puff of smoke, its chakra finally spent. Yamato hadn't poured much into it to begin with, and the jutsu it used was only D-rank, so it hadn't cost much. Still, it had done its job.
Yamato gathered the cut wood and arranged it carefully. Then he performed one of the other jutsu he had in his small arsenal, the Fire Jutsu: Fire Bird. It was, admittedly, a bit over the top for lighting a simple campfire, but it was the only fire-release technique he knew. Sometimes you use a torch when all you need is a match.
He set the fish to cook over the flame. His mother and father had taught him how to cook in the wild when he was young, and those lessons had stuck with him for many years.
He ate quietly, savoring the hot meal more than he expected to.
Once he was done, Yamato decided it was time to train. He made his way back to the river's edge to begin water-walking practice.
Standing at the bank and stepping out onto the surface, he found it difficult. Of course he did. But before even doing the tree walking. He remembered a detail from his past life: when Naruto had been training for water walking, it was briefly mentioned that the method was essentially the same as tree walking, just more demanding. The water's surface was always shifting, always pushing back. which required a bit more chakra.
Thanks to Yamato's inherited memories, though, he already had a solid foundation in tree walking. So he simply repeated those same steps, over and over and over again. And after what felt like an endless loop of attempt, slip, and reset, his feet finally held.
One second on the water's surface.
It wasn't much. But it meant he had done it. And to Yamato, that mattered enormously.
He was relieved that this technique was coming faster than tree walking had. He didn't want to go through that grueling process all over again. So he kept at it, repeating the exercise for a straight hour until he felt like he had a solid foothold, a starting point, even if mastery was still a long way off. By the time he called it off, he could hold his footing on the water for nearly a minute. It wasn't perfection, but it was progress, and progress was exactly what he needed right now.
After pulling his clothes back on, he returned to tree walking, running through the familiar routine again to sharpen what he already had.
Night
His body still felt the lingering of his rough sleep from the night before; the heaviness in his limbs hadn't quite faded yet. Yamato decided that this time he would actually find a proper place to rest. He scouted around until he found a spot that would work, then settled in.
As he lay there on the edge of sleep, he turned over the decisions he'd made since arriving in this world. Looking back at them now, without the fog of urgency clouding his judgment, a lot of them seemed... shortsighted. Survivable, yes. But barely.
Living like this was no way to sustain himself long-term. He needed a new home. He needed resources. Wandering the wilderness and hunting fish with shadow clones wasn't life; it was basically being a nomad. Yamato didn't want to be a nomad.
He also needed money. He needed to find a village.
With that thought settled in his mind, Yamato finally drifted off to sleep, a much better rest this time.
Chapter 4 End
To be continued