So far from home, he was. Not that he really minded -- he was bit of a traveling merchant in a sense. He was used to traveling far from home. But why was he in the mountains rather than the actual village? Simple enough reason. While he was indeed a traveling merchant, he was self-trained as a ninja to a certain extent. While he was proud of his heritage of being a ninja, Lee rather kept it secret from those he did not trust. He was descended from of the Nara clan, a prominent clan from Konoha.

The reason why he was out in these mountains today was simple; he wanted to practice in privacy. He needed to sharpen his skills with his shadow techniques; he often used them to protect his wares while on the road. When used in combination with his skills in swordsmanship, he was often able to deal with bandits before they were able to figure out his skills.

The best place to practice was in the shadow of the mountain, at daybreak. It was early enough that he didnt have to worry about many people stumbling across him, and the light was perfect to allow him to practice strategicly linking his shadow in order to conserve chakra in the heat of battle.

He was calmly sitting just off the path in the lotus position, watching his shadow flicker back and forth in front of his body. Occasionally he would reposition a rock, attempting to practice fine control of his shadow.

[WC: 254]

Shadows, everywhere shadows. Shadows where the friend of the hungry hunter; shadows and a gentle breeze used correctly could be the difference between an easy meal and starvation. Not that a beast like him could ever starve. Even if he didn't have the energy to hunt properly; the number of camping humans in the region meant he had a steady supply of food if he wanted. The locals had such a terror of this place that they didn't even bother to investigate when people went missing; so long as he didn't kill ninja, they chalked it up to animal attacks.

Given he fought and acted like an animal most of the time, and he was currently wearing the pelt of a large, native bear... well; they could be forgiven for assuming. Or would be, if he bothered to care; which he really didn't. Or couldn't, honestly. He was in the middle of a rather... massive, you could say, degradation in his mental state. They happened every so often; he would just completely loose all sense of what little humanity he had left and became completely feral in all regards. Language, higher reasoning, memories... all left behind, until his brain snapped back into reality really, and he rebooted back into 'human' mode. Or as human as he was, anymore, anyway.

On the winds he smelled something, an easy meal of human flesh for his empty belly. Humans where tasty, and easy prey; had he been more human he might have had issues with his cannibal nature, but he really couldn't be bothered even when coherent. Food was food was survival, and a carnivore couldn't be picky unless they had to be. Humans where tasty, simple to hunt, and although they where bony and rotted quickly; it was a hell of a lot easier to eat a human before it rotted than it was to eat an entire buck, or other large beast. He only ate large beasts unless absolutely necessary; food wasn't food unless it could fight back after all; so a human's brain meant that it was at least a mild challenge. Some of the time. Maybe.

Moving through the shadows was easy, he saw as well as any beast after all these years in the wild; heard almost as well, his nose was well trained. He moved like a bear, and the layers of furs beneath the pelt gave him the look of a bear that was thin, but not sickly. About right for the time of year, the bears where just starting to feast to bulk up for winter, so many where still on the thin side. He wasn't far from the scent of human; he figured it was a camper just starting to set up, due to the lack of fire or other scents that humans always had around them in the woods.

Finding a small clearing between him and his target wasn't much of a deterrent; he was bold as brass and had balls the size of boulders, so he strutted right through the dappled clearing like it was nothing. He was in full 'bear' mode, really; and nothing scared a bear this time of year. The cervids(deer, elk, moose, etc) weren't rutting yet, and he was easily forty miles from the nearest male bear, so no worry about being challenged for territory. He was wearing the skin of the former territory master as it was, so it was his territory by the laws of of jungle, as the humans said.

He approached the human as calmly as he ever did anything; acting for all the world like a curious bear looking for a snack for the moment. He'd feast if the human was worth anything, if not... well, he'd eat him and move on anyway. Why the hell not, a spine was a spine and eyes where candy no matter how pathetic the human was.


WC: 667

667/1925 E-D3 STR

His mind was relaxed, functioning on auto-pilot for the moment. With each movement of his shadow, the response and chakra drain lessened until it became second nature to the young man. There was no lag between his mind giving the order and the shadow linking between the rocks scattered about. As he continued to stretch the shadow further and further, Lee would take notice of something at the edge of the clearing.

It would seem Lee had somehow attracted the attention of a creature of the area. He eyed the bear cautiously, head tipping as it moved closer to his position. Weren't bears supposed to be wary of people? While he wasnt sure if his information was 100% correct, there was no denying the current situation; there was a freaking bear coming towards him. Lee would slowly rise up from his position, keeping his eyes on the creature for the time being. Perhaps if he made himself look bigger, could he scare it away? Was that how one dealth with bears?

Quickly reaching into a pack, he would pull out the fur of another bear and drape it over his shoulders. Spreading his arms, he waved them in the direction of the bear, making roaring noises with the hope of scaring the creature off.

WC: 468

...

Right. Humans where stupid. Did this male really think he'd be able to fool anyone with that trick. MAYBE if the skin he threw on still smelled of bear, it might fool something with horrible eyesight; bears in general didn't have the best eyes, and many of the herbivores had pretty nasty twilight vision, so a clearly like this that was held in that dusky almost day, almost night light would be a bad place to rely on eyes to figure out what was going on. Fortunately for him, he was biologically human, and humans had AMAZING twilight vision compared to other apex species. Not even raptors could touch the clarity of a human's twilight vision, and that was saying something.

No matter. It just meant he had another skin to add to his bed pile. He had a rather comfortable (for him, anyway) cave set up only a few miles away; a pile of dead grasses and moss beneath several layers of animal pelts giving him a soft, warm place to sleep; away from the elements and prying eyes of the night hunters.

He made little noise; only releasing what would be a very convincing grunt-roar; that noise that everyone associated with a bear communicating. It wasn't as 'deep' as a bear of his 'size' would normally be, but a human that wasn't trained and experienced in forest beasts would never notice the difference. He wasn't outright threatening the human, this was a show really; he was the territory owner, and this was an intruder, yes; but he had no reason to escalate this until he'd had some fun. That, and he did know how a bear would react to a rival in it's territory. Rearing up like that was the dumbest thing to do unless you where actively looking for a fight.

The psychotic one moved closer, no longer in a direct line toward the other male. He was circling, sort of; even bears did that before they started actively attacking. This was a big beast playing his his food, and the human didn't even realize he was lunch yet.

WC: 362

667+362= 1029/1925 E-D3 STR