With the feeling of air under my wings and the sound of rustling leaves filling my ears, I slowly glided through the forest. I didn't need to but I still flapped my wings, wanting to feel like a living, breathing mortal being just for a moment.

Like a little bird, just like any other, enjoying the freedom of the sky.

It was nice, being free. I hadn't actually thought it would work, but I'd seen enough movies to know to try it. A really outlandish idea, generating simply a bit of black mist to create an alternate body for myself. Really, I think it's kinda cool.

I'm so overpowered it's not even funny.

...Who am I kidding. It's freakin' hilarious!

Zooming through the air, I barely even felt the breeze as I shot through the forest like a phantom. Like a mirage flashing through a dark forest. Speaking of...

It'll be evening soon.

I slowed down, slightly curving my wings. Giving a few gentle flaps, I gracefully landed on a branch, my tail-feathers swaying behind me in a beautiful backdrop. Swaying, curling, dancing. I loved my tail-feathers.

Humans can never experience the satisfying feeling of having even ONE measly tail to move around...

Poor things.

Gently curving my neck, I gazed down at the forest. This training ground, was a place I was very familiar with. Years ago, before I had gotten my true form, I had been a tree. But my roots had extended far, intertwining with all the plants within hundreds of miles. Not to mention, to avoid detection by those Hyugas, I had distributed my chakra through my entire root system, which had basically taken over the entire forest. I had been one with the forest. Connected to everything.

I had been the forest itself.

Stretching from the training ground to the forests surrounding the Village hidden in the leaves. And I could still feel it.

Remnants of my chakra.

In every part of this forest. It all feels like kin. Family.

Me.

One of my tail-feathers gently brushed against the tree trunk. The feeling of unity was faint, but it was still there.

Which is why it was so easy to command the plants here.

If I could, I would have sighed. I mean, I was glad I could spice things up a bit, afterall, eternity is a long time...But I still kind of miss having my own body.

I snorted to myself and unfurled my wings once more. No point in moping. I still have til the end of time to try and avoid boredom. But for now...

My purple gaze flashed as my wings gave two powerful sweeps, lifting me back into the air.

Time to get that prey~

I had settled on a group already. A team barely two kilometers away from me.I'll get there in no time.

I didn't even need to flap my wings. A flash through shadows, and in the next moment I was soaring above a group of three genin, all pretty grown and violent looking. The sun was already setting, casting the leaves of the treetops into a golden glow. I circled far above their heads for a moment, deciding on the most showy way of making my presence known.

But, can we just take a moment.

Pray tell, God almighty.... Why do all the mob-character genin look so menacing, old, scarred and killer-like? I mean, it's ridiculous. You have this whole mob of ninja's that seem like they're seasoned fighters, all scarred, buff, scary and a whole lot older than the main characters! Then, you have team seven, team eight and team ten as well as Lee's team and Gaara's team. THEY ARE ALL F*CKING KIDS!!!! Like, dafuq. They wear green and orange jumpsuits, are completely useless and their teamwork sucks, and yet they somehow wipe the floors with these scary looking genin that seem to be well in their thirties.

The plot sure is biased.

Speaking of...

I froze in the air as black lines covered my forehead.

What am I doing this extra work for exactly...?

Shit! Shiiit!!!!!

Naruto and Sasuke are the damned PROTAGONISTS. WHY THE HELL WOULD THEY NEED HELP GETTING SOMETHING AS BASIC AS A SCROLL?!?!?!?

....Where did all my treasured braincells go?

Tears were running down my feathered cheeks like rivers, my very soul weeping tragically.

But now I've promised that damned duckbutt I'd get the job done... screw you Cei.

Screw you! And not in the good way!

While I was cursing myself in between heart wrenching bird-sobs, the menacing looking genin were busy sneakily running around. They had stopped for the day, and were busy setting traps. When I finally managed to calm my tatas, I watched them with dead eyes as they did their work.

Not bad, but not even a challenge for the protagonist halo...

I needed to stretch my whole face wide to avoid more tears from streaming down my face.

I didn't even know birds could cry...

I kept circling their camp, waiting patiently for the sun to set even further behind the horizon. When the sun was so far down that barely a speck of light made it through the tall and dense trees, I finally took action.

Was I dramatic?

Oh, you know it.

I folded my wings and dove straight for them. My momentum caused a powerful wave of air to follow me, and when I was just above the ground and spread my wings once more, the air hit against the ground hard, sweeping through the camp in vengeful blasts, tearing a few of the closest bushes from the ground. The genin instantly jumped to their feet, and ran out to see what had happened. I floated above the ground, my wings spread majestically like some lord of the sky. I made by body reflect more light than usual, so that my otherwise ink-black body could actually be seen in the darkness.

Afterall, I needed my greatness witnessed.

Relishing their horror-stricken faces, I made a grand raising of my wings, my tail feathers spreading around me like a blooming flower.

And with a flash of purple in my eyes, the earth started rumbling.

The genin were so confused and so, so afraid. I could taste their fear on my tongue as the poor things tried to figure out what was happening. With the shaking of the ground, small cracks started to form in the dry mud that was the ground they stood on. The cracks were small, but there were many of them as more and more kept appearing. And as the cracks widened, small patches of green started popping out. Soon, the ground stopped rumbling.

All that was left was the deadly stillness of the night and a new lawn growing out of the cracks in the ground.

I gazed at the still confused as hell genin. Then I did something abominable with my beak. It was supposed to be my valiant attempt at a smirk.

Think it's over already? Well, psyke~

As if by command, immediately after I thought it, the ground practically exploded. Dried mud and stones flew everywhere as things the size of wild cats started popping out of the ground where the cracks with the green leaves had been.

Carrots.

Hundreds. Giant. Very, very cursed. Carrots.

I released the most sinister evil laugh the world has ever heard.

"MWAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!"

While I was giving a mad evil laughter that would put all the movie villains to shame, the cat-sized carrots with a dark and rotten aura and wrinkles looking like bloodthirsty or grumpy faces started stalking towards the poor, utterly traumatized genin.

...they didn't last.

Not even a moment.

Barely a second later, I was interrupted in my laughter by three loud thumps. And the first thing I saw when looking back was three bodies lying unconscious on the ground, with three suspicious dark patches slowly forming beneath them. The strong smell filled the air immediately.

I instantly whoosed onto a branch far, far from the ground and sat there swinging my wings violently to blow the contaminated air away!

Feeling slightly grumpy that my oh-so-long-awaited battle had been cut short by the mob-characters utter incompetence, I kept huffing while having my cursed carrots look through the genins stuff.

At least I got the scroll.

Sighing heavily, I could only comfort myself with the thought that at least I was helpful and will make team seven finish their second exam with much better result than they should have! That must count for something...

Head lowered, I slowly spread my wings, preparing to glide down to quickly grab the scroll one of my carrots got and get the hell out of here!

Gliding off the tree branch, I gently dove towards the carrot with a asura-face oozing dark energy. Stretching out my claw, I prepared to grab it. But as my lazy gaze rested on the scroll, it took a whole moment for it to register and for me to stop mid-air.

....

.....

.......

.....earth scroll.....

There was nothing to say.

The whole forest shook as an earth shattering cry pierced the darkness of the night.