The sun was still up, but only just. It clung to the edge of the horizon like a lazy student refusing to leave class, casting the trees in long gold and amber streaks. Shafts of fading light filtered through the canopy, making the forest shimmer like it was dipped in honey.
Jun liked this time of day. Just the right amount of pretty and calmness.
A quiet stretch of forest later, Jun dropped down from the trees and landed beside a river. It wound lazily through the woods like a shallow stream, its surface broken by smooth pebbles and patches of moss-covered stone. The water ran clear and cold, slipping over rocks in gentle murmurs.
It had taken some time—long enough for a pleasant ache to settle in his legs from leaping branch to branch, but not so far that the way back felt uncertain. Not that he minded. Moving through the canopy like that—fluid, fast, free—was something he'd never have known in the modern world.
He sat down at the river's edge, stretched his legs, and unfastened his sandals to let his toes wiggle in the water.
"Ahhh," he sighed. "Truly, the shinobi dream."
His reflection wobbled in the ripples. He didn't look nearly as exhausted as he felt.
After sitting for a while, Jun let his mind drift. The hum of the forest around him was steady, like background noise from a nature documentary. Birds chirped. Wind rustled the leaves. Somewhere nearby, water trickled down a smooth stone and sang a quiet, pleasant note into the river.
He didn't move.
And he didn't think.
Because… he didn't need to.
Time passed without permission, the kind of silence so rare in a ninja's life that it felt… Well, it was rare even when he was in the modern world. He never felt this at peace. It just felt like he's in the right place.
Eventually, something caught his eye. A very subtle glint beneath the surface.
He blinked, and he leaned forward slightly.
Sure enough—there they were, fishes. Little darting shadows beneath the current. Quick, sleek, and dumb. Just the way he liked his prey.
"Oh? So you do exist." Jun grinned.
He rolled up his pant legs, stood, and stepped carefully into the stream.
The cold hit him instantly—biting at his calves like an annoyed cat—but it wasn't unbearable. In contrast, It made him feel present.
As he stood in the shallow stream, the fish in there would occasionally swim through or around his legs.
One of the fish drifted lazily through the shallows, unaware of the predator standing ankle-deep in its personal habitat. Jun reached out—calm, smooth, surgical—and missed… Completely.
The fish slipped through his fingers like a wet bar of soap dipped in shame.
Jun stood there, water dripping off his hand. He blinked once… then again…
"…Okay," he muttered. "So my base stats are trash."
Another fish darted past his shin, and this made Jun's eye twitch.
Without a word, he activated the Sharingan—not out of necessity, but out of pure, vindictive spite.
The world snapped into focus, and within moments, he snatched a fish from the water and tossed it onto the bank.
Now, the fish weren't just silhouettes. They were targets. Lines of trajectory. Twitchy, fleshy chakra blips moving through a grid only he could see.
It stopped being fishing and became precision work.
The next fish didn't even get a chance to swim. Jun snatched it clean out of the current like he was plucking fruit from a low-hanging branch.
Then another.
Then two more in rapid succession.
By the time his sleeves were properly soaked, he already had 5 fishes on the bank.
"Alright," he said, "that's probably more than enough."
Then he caught three more.
"Okay… I'm definitely done now."
He caught a ninth on reflex.
"...Maybe twelve's a good number."
A short while later, Jun sat cross-legged beside a line of fish, neatly gutted fish threaded through the gills with a length of fibrous vine he'd stripped from a creeper along the way. He wiped his damp hands on a cloth that may or may not have once belonged to a Rain ninja's jacket.
To his right sat three bamboo canisters—sealed, hollowed, and thoroughly cleaned. He had cut them down along his way here too and shaped them by hand.
With the sun drooping ever closer to the edge of the world, Jun gathered the line of fish and the three water-filled bamboo canisters in his hands.
The forest was darker now, shadows stretching long between the trees, and the hum of insects had shifted into a more cautious, creaking rhythm.
It was best for him to go back so he can eat up and rest.
Jun moved fast, gliding from branch to branch with easy rhythm, his chakra low enough that he could feel the fatigue bleeding into his joints.
Then he heard something.
A shuffle and a muffled groaning.
He paused mid-branch, eyes narrowing.
Maybe another team. Maybe it's someone wounded. Maybe… It's Chakra Points!
He moved toward the sound without hesitation, adjusting the fish so they didn't slap against his back like damp applause.
Sneakily, he jumped and stopped on a tree branch that's rather thick. Through the trees, he spotted the targets.
A pink hair girl, an orange, and one emo.
Jun blinked.
"...No way."
Beneath the gnarled roots of a wide tree, Sakura had dragged both Naruto and Sasuke to safety—though "safety" was generous. She hadn't been particularly good at hiding her sounds and track.
Naruto looked like he'd been slapped around by a rabid squirrel. Sasuke was unconscious, pale, and sweat-slicked, clutching his neck like it owed him money.
Jun dropped into a crouch behind a nearby trunk and watched.
Sakura was frantically trying to tend to them, muttering something about medicine and holding it together by what appeared to be pure stress hormones.
Jun tilted his head.
It would be so, so easy to kill them right now.
They were vulnerable, weak, and out of chakra. Sakura would fold like wet paper. Naruto was snoring.
Sasuke, well—Sasuke was a mess. But Jun wanted both him and Naruto to stay alive. He needed them, eventually.
Both of them had... potential. Very high potential.
But what really piqued his interest was the mark on Sasuke's neck. That cursed seal. The raw, pulsing signature of Orochimaru's twisted chakra.
Jun stared at it, eyes narrowing. He knew that it was a helpful gimmick. From what he knows, it even boosts one's physical and chakra abilities.
"…I want to copy his Cursed Seal."
He echoed in his mind, attempting to communicate with his System.
The next moment, a reply came, but…
[ You really want snake semen. Are you sure? If you do, please go touch Sasuke Uchiha. You will become a respawn point for Orochimaru in addition to having a high potential of death. ]
Jun's was in disbelief after hearing what the System just said.
"…Never mind."
[ Please confirm the copying of the Snake Semen. It costs 1 Chakra Point. ]
"Shut the fuck up. I don't want it anymore." Jun cursed at his system. He felt like it was just fucking with him, literally. He couldn't help but wonder if other systems do this. They don't… Do they???
[ Understood. Snake Semen request canceled. ]
He exhaled sharply through his nose, both annoyed and vaguely concerned at how fast the system had jumped to that terminology. But obviously, the system was trying to save him. He hadn't considered the fact that that cursed mark indeed was literally snake semen from Orochimaru.
Still, he stayed crouched, pondering.
If the knowledge from the anime serves him right, the sound ninja team should already be waiting to fight Sasuke. And if they aren't here right now, they will be soon.
Although he didn't want to kill Team 7, he wouldn't mind getting some points from the sound team.
But Jun wasn't interested in fighting Orochimaru's henchmen with low chakra and a bag of fish.
Not yet, anyway.
He turned, leapt silently into the canopy, and began making his way back to the cave, mind buzzing with new options.
Snake semen, though?
He was never going to emotionally recover from that. He couldn't help but curse his system.