Anthology

Naruto grunted as he smacked the side of neck where another giant mosquito tried take off with some his blood. Again. 

"I will squish every single one of you annoying bugs, dattebayo!" The blonde said, with almost real anger coloring them as he started focusing back on his camera. 'I won't let the mosquitoes get the best of me!' Naruto thought with a huff, trying to keep from getting distracted. 

The blonde honestly loved his job, but there were times when he had to stop and wonder why the hell he ever decided to be a wildlife photographer in the first place. 

Sure, there were cool moments but it really wasn't as fun as he told his brother Kurama. Everytime he left the states, he had to battle it out with weird as shit food, unpredictable weather and -of course- language barriers. 

Although, the biggest thing for Naruto personally was the whole flying aspect. Naruto hated planes, and he hated being on planes. Naruto had in fact been really crafty about avoiding them, resorting to public bus systems, trains, boats, bicycles, and questionable cars and or vans. Essentially Naruto would deal with anything else over flying. (Naruto had even ridden a camel once. It was terrible.) 

All of that aside he had looking forward to this particular job. Naruto had been sent to the island of Java out in Indonesia to take pictures of the rare Javan leopards. When Kakashi had come wandering into the blondes office reading another one of his smutty books at the ungodly hour of nine forty in the morning Naruto had been forced to ask himself how the man had ever gotten the job as Assistant Editor at National Geographic. 

"Naruto. There you are. Did you read the email i sent you about the Javan leopards?" Kakashi had asked and Naruto nodded vaguely. The man simply eyed for a long moment before shaking his head. "Read it again on the plane, you look too happy about this." 

"Plane?" Naruto nearly squealed, not looking happy at all. 

"Thats what you chose to focus on from what I said?" Kakashi remarked blandly glancing up from his book. "Why do i bother?" Naruto cast him a glare.

"I would have you know that i did read it!" 

"Did you click on the link to second document below the first?" Kakashi countered and Naruto froze.

"What link?" 

"I rest my case. Your flight leaves at 6a.m with two connecting flights. Your first stop over is in Asia so see if you can grab the latest copy of Icha Icha Paradise for me? I'll pay you back for it." Naruto kept glaring at him until his brain caught up with the whole flight thing again. 

"How long of a flight are we talkin about here?" The blonde asked with a glare, dread curling up in his stomach at the mere word. 

"Look, Naruto i know that you hate flights but this is a hard ticket to get and your the best." Kakashi cast him a sly grin to tease him, "since Sasuke is in Europe covering the intelligence studies on songbirds." Naruto actually stood up from the comment.

"I am the best!" The blonde announced, the prickly feeling of the back and forth competition between the two pissing him off. 

"of course." Kakashi remarked, trying to keep his laugh quite. "So i am sure you can handle the 27 hour flight. The island is on the other side of the world and this is a once in a lifetime shot. The leopards are endangered so the opportunities at being able to photograph them are dwindling." Naruto felt himself want to choke at the mere idea of being trapped inside of the oversized metal tin can in the air- for twenty seven hours. He of course resisted.

"Yeah i got it. I'll go, but you are the one paying for the obscene amounts of ramen and beer i'll need to make it alive. And there had better be a hell of a christmas bonus." Naruto practically yelled, none to happy with the transport situation. 

"right. No worries, ramen, beer and 

stupidly bright orange clothes for you this year." Kakashi said with a laugh, and Naruto felt his goes red a she recalled when his mail was accidently sent to his office and everyone got to see his very bright orange sweatpants and shirt. 

"Damnit i told you! It was for a costume!" Naruto yelled. That of course is a complete lie, since Naruto in fact wears that shirt and sweatpants to bed every night but hey- no reason for his boss to know that, right? 

In all, the entire conversation led to the National Park on the island where (despite the blood thirty annoying as shit Mosquitos and humidity) he could admit was worth to terrible plane ride. Naruto was already able to get some good shots of the rather lush tropical rainforests and even some of its inhabitants. The leopards however, remained elusive. 

In an effort to fight off the anxiety and nerves from flying the blonde tried (really hard, actually) to do some research. 

The leopard he was going to take pictures of was officially called the, Panthera Pardus Melas and was on the red list.  (meaning its critically endangered.) There were less than two hundred and fifty fully grown leopards and the number was only going down. It didn't help that the animal was found exclusively on the Javan island. The island boasted two different kinds of leopard; the easily recognizable pale gold or tawny with black rosettes and green eyes and the lesser seen and more rare melanistic leopard, which due to a recessive phenotype resulted in black fur and even darker spots paired with unique silvery-grey eyes.

Naruto was hoping to see a dark leopard, but at the rate that he was going he would be lucky if he saw anything other than mosquitos. 

The blonde shifted his weight feeling his shoulder pop and sweat roll down the back of his neck, and down the side of face. Naruto had set up several camera traps which he planned on camping out near so he could concentrate on a different one everyday. The rain had been going off and on the entire time he had been setting them up and he was glad he had his dark green rain poncho. 

Currently the blonde was perched nearly nine feet off the ground in giant wild and gnarled mango tree under some camouflage netting. Then about fifteen feet across from him in a second mango tree was a second camera, his trusted canon shooter 1DX. 'This look likes a small game trail.' The blonde thought hoping that the leopards would come by in order to stalk the smaller critters. It helped that the trees had been marked by extensive amounts of claw marks like some sort of natural cat scratching post. 'Those claw marks are like a way of saying- hey! This Is My territory so fuck off! Trespassers will be mauled, possibly played with before being viciously devoured!' Naruto thought trying not to shudder at the idea. 

Naruto however had only seen six wild boars, which sniffed around under camera as though decided if he wanted to destroy it, and them a few mouse-deer and a gibbon. By itself that wasn't bad since he got to use the Nikon D4s that Kurama had gotten him for the sun splotched spot of jungle he found himself in. 

The blonde stayed in the tree longer, until the sun sank down below the trees and he glanced at his watched to find that it was almost 9p.m and he yawned. Naruto had been up since 5 a.m checking and setting up cameras and getting settled into his hiding spot. Jet lag still plagued him over the past day and a half he had been there and his stomach rumbled and growled like the leopards he had yet to see. 

With his bladder full, stomach empty and rain starting to go away Naruto tucked his camera away in its bag. Once he strapped the bag to his chest and started to move movement from out of the corner of his eyes had him freeze. Holding his breath the blonde glanced over to see a distinctly cat-like silhouette slinking out from the shadows. 'Damn!' Naruto thought, trying to pull the camera out of his bag as quickly and quietly as possible, adjusting the auto focus and low light settings to bring the Leopard into clarity. Naruto's breath hitched and his finger seemed to get trigger happy as he snapped shot after shot before he flipped the setting over to the video function. 'Man, i haven't ever seen a leopard in real life before.' Naruto thought as he eyed the large head and delicately cupped eyes and those powerful neck shoulders and muscular limbs. He watched as the leopard prowled purposefully closer, seemed to glide and sway to a tune only it could hear. 'Shit. It's coming right up to my tree. Fuck. Fuck.' Naruto thought going as still as he could desperately hoping that it wouldn't notice him. 

Instead, Naruto (who was still utterly entranced by the elegant but deadly cat below him) watched as the Leopard came to stop at the base of the tree and tipped its head to the side before taking long deep breaths of air. Naruto swallowed, realizing that the cat was freaking scenting him and was glad that he hadn't used any cologne or showered. 'Maybe all the cat will smell is rain mud and- whatever else he was covered in.' Naruto thought before dismay started creeping up his spine as the cat reared up bracing its large front paws against the tree trunk. The blonde kept the video going even as the cat started sniffing in earnest, rubbing one side of its face and them the other against the bark. 

A deep rumbling purr bubbled up from the leopards well muscled chest, and Naruto stared with wide eyes as he unsheathed its claws and began to dig them into the bark. The blonde shifted slightly, trying to keep the camera decently so he could catch the cats movements. 

Then after a few moments of staring the leopard started to slink away, keeping its gaze firmly toward the tree where the blonde was hiding. 'Well, it shouldn't be able to see me. It can smell though. Probably.' Naruto thought not sure if that made him feel better or not as the big cat circled around the tree before slinking away and out of the blondes field of view. 'What a weird ass cat.' The blonde thought with a frown.