Quintessence
A Chouji X Hinata Fanfiction
Hey all! Tankou001 here with an all new chapter of Quintessence! I hope everyone liked the last chapter and I am hoping this chapter will be a good one as well. I had a few pretty good ideas about what to do and all. It's all pretty clear in my head too. Anyway; Love is in the air and Hinata is preggered up right proper. Sakura and Temari both had their kids as well, who I will name later because right now I am FAR too lazy to do it. I am still stuffed after thanksgiving with the turkey related leftovers. It is really troublesome, as Shikamaru might say when facing this sort of problem, to have to deal with good turkey and such that hadn't been eaten on the specified day. You have to pry it off the bone and actually do something with it.
Regardless I hope all of you, once again, had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you happen to live in a country like mine, which celebrates it (Does Canada do that? I still haven't bothered to check). Anyway please enjoy this chapter!
{HR}
Chapter Ten: The Teams On A Visit
Akimichi Chouji sat in his home across the game board from one of his students, Ibana Maya. The two were playing Shogi together. Today was a day where both Hinata's team and Chouji's team decided to pay a visit to their teachers and the "humble" abode in which they lived. In truth Chouji and Hinata's home was not at all the humble house in the woods that many made it out to be. When people thought a house in the woods they thought of a quaint log cabin surrounded by evergreens. The Akimichi Residence was, in actuality, almost mansion-like in size and build. It was, of course, a small mansion but a mansion no less. It towered three floors up with seventeen rooms on a plot of land that held a good fifty acres. Chouji had always loved his space, his closeness to the outdoors. This home was one he built with his own hands when he came back to Konoha, having gained much prowess in architecture among other useful building proffessions in the wild. Originally it had started as a two floor home with five bedrooms on twenty acres. After Chouji married and now that they were expecting a child such wouldn't at all do. Chouji bought thirty more acres and rebuilt he house almost entirely. No child of his would be living in anything but absolute luxury. On top of that Chouji and Hinata could now affod to have their teams over in full sparring mode without worrying about bothering the neighbors; At least without bothering neghbors if the couple would have had any.
Maya simply sat in place with a slight smile as Chouji contemplated his next move. Slowly he moved a piece to its finally decided place and looked at maya. The girl grabbed one of her pieces, places it next to Chouji's and stated loudly, "Maya winner!"
Chouji couldn't believe it. He had nearly all of his pieces still and Maya had so few. He had taken nealy all of them early on and the remainder had been a game of chasing her pieces down in a futile attempt to gain an even greater vistory. Looking over the board for a moment he sighed. She was entirely correct. Chouji had lost and properly at that. Hinata walked into the room and looked at the board. "Now that's unexpected."
Chouji looked up at her, his beloved wife now possessing a belly that, while not exactly bulging, was definitely making sure that everyone could see that she was very much pregnant. She was fifteen weeks pregnant, almost four months. She had passed over the horrible nausea stage and now was baking all the time, making some kind of food for Chouji and herself. It wasn't that Hinata was even particularly fond of baking nor had she ever been. However Hinata had, most recently, found herself especially drawn to items that resulted from baking and thus had thrown herself into baking over the past couple of weeks. Cakes, cookies, pastries, fresh bread, pies and everything of the sort had gone into the oven uncooked and come out a masterpiece.. Hinata couldn't seem to get enough of them and Chouji didn't mind at all that as a result of all of this baking he kept a very large appetite satisfied at nearly all times. Chouji smiled and stood up, kissing Hinata as he did. "I suppose that's two of my students who can beat me at Shogi every time. I thought I had a winning game there for a second... I don't dare try Anka-chan."
"Try again? Best fifteen of twenty-nine, yes, Chouji-sensei?" Chouji almost slapped himself after hearing these words. Fourteen times Maya had beaten hjim not soundly as Hizano always did but with great subterfuge. She made sure Chouji was sure there was no way at all that she could beat him before delivering a well placed and decided blow against him, winning the game from complete defeat every time. He dared not make it a good round fifteen.
"I'll pass, Maya-chan." Chouji stated with mild irritation before walking to the window. Out in the back yard Ty Dao and Hizano were sparring in a taijutsu only match. Ty Dao was taking circular leaps at Hizano, spinning about as the kunai at the end of her lengthy braid flew to make its target which happened to be Hizano. Hizano himself was side-stepping every blow with mild readiness. Everything sent at him he was able to get away from, if only just. Ty Dao seemed to be having no problem at all in keeping up her highly mobile combat style despite the clear effort it must have taken. Then again, Ty Dao was one of the Hazumi Clan. Such movements and abilities were tought so early that Ty Dao probably saw them as completely natural. All children of the Hazumi learned Bure-do Ken as early as they could walk. Moving her head in such a way that made her braid a veritable whip, leaping into the air and spinning fifteen times at high speeds to use that lash of kunai ended hair; All were things that Ty Dao no doubt did as easily as walking. She certainly never got more worn out doing that than walking, that was for sure. Still this was her only style so far as Chouji knew. Hizano himself knew two different styles, both of which varied highly from the other. Granted both mainly supported dodging though the Polar Katas varied greatly even amongst themselves. One kata could have possessed incredible flexibility and dodginess while the next centered completely around taking hits in order to completely destryoy one's opponent. Naturally the latter wasn't being used in this fight as often as the former. "I'm going out to instruct. Will you two be alright here inside?"
Hinata and Maya nodded. Chouji walked to the back door and opened it slowly, intent on watching the fight. Earlier Temano, Anka and Kyogi had left to do things about the property. Temano had left to "plant" fruit and nut trees. He had originally done it for Hinata and Chouji's benefit alone but Chouji informed him that he didn't need to. After a bit of chattiong Temano's mind had been made up on the subject, the boy convinced that instead of just standard trees fruit and nut trees would be better than average since he would have to get specific things instead of the standard generic tree which he normally called upon in battle. Kyogi had gone out to one of the more mountainous parts of Chouji and Hinata's land, wanting to go tunneling. That was a hobby of his now as much as the practice kata was Hizano's key warmup method and as much as relaxing in hot springs was Ty Dao's favorite relaxation method. Kyogi tunneled not with his hands or tools, however. He did it with those eyes of his. Kyogi's eyes, long having ascended to the next level in its course, took significantly less chakra and was now far more effective in any setting. Since tunnaling not only honed his abilities but had, in fact, been the way to his first ascention Kyogi had made it a great hobby. Finally Anka had fled to Chouji's forge to bang a hammer on some metal for a while. After seeing Chouji rebuild Kakashi's old family tanto she had seemingly become enthralled with smithing. She took the time, whenever she could afford it, to come to Chouji and Hinata's property to make something out of metal, never forgetting anything she had made before or how to make it. Naturally this was the work of the sharingan.
As Chouji stepped wholly from the door, however, stepping a good ten feet from the house a beam of heat sliced acros the ground at his feet. He jumped into action, racing toward the source of the attack. Only as he leaped into a bush to catch the attacker did he realize it was Kyogi, who jumped backward out of reach at just the last moment. He opened his sunburst set eyes at Chouji and launched a wide cone of heat at the Akimichi, Chouji sinking into the ground at the last moment. This was, of course, just a playful spar. However, Chouji knew that Kyogi, as always, was attacking to kill. That was how Kyogi worked and all who sparred with him were well aware of this fact. If Kyogi held back at all it wasn't effective in his mind. There was no way that anybody, no matter who they were, would ever have the right to hold back in a fight in Kyogi's mind. Immediately Chouji leaped from the soil behind Kyogi and the Nagamori rolled sidewys to avoid chouji's massive arm swinging at him. Now no longer intent on watching Ty Dao and Hizano's fight Chouji was more than happy to hand Kyogi a good beating. Kyogi was a high mobility fighter, of course, as many of the nine rookie students under Hinata, Chouji and Sai were. He was squirrely, easily able to dodge attacks that would knock him to the ground for seconds at a time even if they were faster ones. Still, he was enduring enough to take the smaller attacks head on though he didn't like to. Chouji noted his feet lighting with red flames and his hands becoming wreathed in blue fire as he took attack after attack at Chouji. Of course even if he was a Chuunin he hadn't been one a fraction as long as Chouji had been a Jounin. This was a clearly one sided fight.
Chouji took his time, dodging the attacks that seemed like the more difficult ones to dodge whilesimply disrupting the ones that would be normally easier to side step. Chouji wanted to show Kyogi that he could get away from anything he threw at the Akimichi then rub his nose in those facts. However Kyogi came out with a new attack that Chouji wasn't quite ready for. Somewhere after Kyogi had released a potentially devastating battery of attacks on Chouji, all unsuccessful and before Chouji found himself lying bodily on the ground Kyogi must have struck him with something hard because at one point Chouji was dodging skillfully away from Kyogi's blows, the next he was flying through the air and the last he found himself on his back, staring up at Kyogi in an oncoming drop kick. Chouji righted himself upsidedown and spun, kicking Kyogi out of the way as he flipped back to his feet. It was time to end this little sparring match, the Akimichi had played with his wife's student a bit too long and now said student was getting airs that he shouldn't be. As Kyogi advanced Chouji took one step to the side and grabbed the wrist of Kyogi's fiery hands, lifting him bodilly from the ground and laying him down rather forcefully on the dirt at the large man's feet. "That's enough I think, Kyogi-kun. Let's call it quits."
Kyogi blinked for a moment before grinning and throwing a leg up at Chouji's face. Chouji caught this in a hand and suddenly was back on his back, staring at the sky. Kyogi stood above him now grinning from ear to ear. What had that been, where had Kyogi learned it? Chouji had caught the blow in his own hand and by that point Kyogi's feet had definitely extinguished themselves. As Kyogi leaned down grinning he saw the Chouji was unrespnsive and his grin faded a bit. "Hey... Chouji-sensei, are you alright? Did I get you that badly?"
No sooner did Kyogi finish his sentence than did Chouji grab him by the hair, drag him down and, with his own specialty jutsu, sink neck deep into the earth with Kyogi, leaving the Chuunin in the ground as he rose back out and left. Chouji was most displeased with what had just happened. There was no way that a man less than half his height and many times less than his weight could simply toss him through the air so effortlessly save for in a few situations, none of which had been this one. Kyogi had, through some means, tossed Chouji through the air like a doll and left him dazed in the process. He had connected a single shot which should have rightfully ben right in hand, literally, and somewhere between when Chouji had been hit and when he regained awareness he had winded up lying face up in the dirt. Kyogi's own yells for help went completely unnoticed as Chouji returned to the sparring match that Ty Dao and Hizano still carried on. Naturally Hizano looked more tired than before. Ty Dao still moved with great celerity, her attacks not at all slowed. When it came to taijutsu Ty Dao had proven that any person she couldn't beat it wasn't for lack of trying and it was never decisive. Ty Dao had taken on a good deal of the better Taijutsu Jounin of the village and even if she had been defeated, which all people knew was bound to happen it was always close, always rendering her opponent to fits of havy breathing and often sizable injuries after the battle. Ty Dao had, as she always said, never experienced complete and utter defeat. Something told Chouji that she never would as well.
Finally Hizano slipped up as Ty Dao spun toward him. Something had caught his foot and the taijutsu expert crashed into him, grabbing a leg, rolling him nearly onto his head and folding his body over itself. Around his neck her braid lay, the kunai at the end right at his throat. If Ty Dao chose to she could twitch and have the kunai dig deep into his throat, killing him immediately. Of course Hizano did tap out and Ty Dao flicked her braid from his neck harmlessly, catching the braid about her arm in an artful style. Chouji clapped, a smile on his face now that he could forget about what Kyogi had done. "Don't beat my student too badly, Ty Dao-chan." He started "He has worked hard, I wouldn't want him to think that all of it was for nothing."
"Against me it was, Chouji-sensei." Ty Dao said, clearly grinning through her mask. "He's five hundred years too soon to defeat me in pitched combat as far as Taijutsu goes and I always get in too close before someone can pull any ninjutsu." Chouji knew very well that Genjutsu were next to useless against the Hazumi girl as well. Her body had a natural defense against Genjutsu. When struck it would go dormant and when approached it would instantly super heat itself, exploding outward in a violent display. Ty Dao would regain consciousness and strike back immediately if anybody got within five feet of her in this unconscious state. "I suppose if he does work for five hundred years and go against me though he'll still lose. Cause five hundred years in the future I'll still have done the same amount of training if not more."
Hizano stood and sighed. "You know, Ty Dao-chan, You may be surprised one of these days."
Ty Dao looked back at Hizano, her eyes mildly cold as they looked at him in minor offense. "Until you are so natural in your style that to attack is to breath you will never defeat me. The Hazumi of Kagerougakure No Sato learn to fight before they learn to walk. By the time I was coherent enough to sense danger a kunai was already in my hand and a needle in my hair. By the time I could roll over I also knew how to take a life. By the time I could crawl I could also tumble. When I finally walked I also kicked, punched, whipped and flipped. Bure-do Ken comes as naturally to me as does breathing to you. I was literally born into it; something nobody but the Hazumi and few other select clans spread across the world could possibly understand." Hizano took a step back and Ty Dao took three forward. Though she was shorter than Hizano her figure still looked to dominate wholly his own. "I have nearly twelve years of practice in training, fighting, the art of taking lives. You have five years of playing with toys and squalling in your bed like a child, three years of being beaten soundly about the yard by your clan mates and for years of solid combat training... Only about four months of that time has been training in your martial art of choice. Face it, Hizano-kun, you are greatly outmatched and as long as I breath you can soundly assume that I can perform my martial art of choice just as easily."
To say that Hizano looked intimidated would have been a gross understatement. He looked downright afraid for his life at Ty Dao's words. The worst part of it all was that Ty Dao's words were, for the most part, wholly true. It wasn't exactly as Ty Dao said it but Chouji was aware, through various information about the Hazumi clans, that what Ty Dao said wasn't that far from true. As soon as a Hzaumi child grew aware enough of the world around them to understand that the movements in the world were more than simply moving shapes they were subjected to lie below a dying animal as their parents butchered it. By the time they could roll over they were made to do likewise, a kunai in their hand guided by the parent to the heart of a goat. When crawling came along a child would be made to tumble, unable to understand the reason but unconsciously soaking in the very art of it all. Ty Dao did her style as easily as breathing, this was no embellishment. No doubt if Ty Dao ever did have children, an image Chouji didn't quite see as a likely possibility, she would raise it how she was to a tee save for even more training than she had gotten as a child. Ty Dao hadn't failed to finish her training at home because it was her choice. Her parents had died when she was a child. She had no choice in the matter. Something told Chouji that Ty Dao, however, couldn't die no matter how hard her enemies tried. Personally, Chouji believed that Ty Dao, were she to try to take her own life, wouldn't be able to. Something in Chouji's subconscious mind told him that Ty Dao's mind, no matter how hell bent on getting her killed, wouldn't surpass her body's natural survival reflexes. She would move to strike herself with the full intent to end her own life but Chouji was sure that if such a thing ever happened her body would move away independent of her will.
"Take it easy on my student, Ty Dao-chan..." Chouji said, frowning a bit. "I know you have been trained that way but Hizano will eventually become your equal, rest assured." Ty Dao scoffed at this and walked away, back to the house. "You alright, Hizano-kun?"
Hizano nodded a bit as he stood. "Chouji-sensei?" Chouji cocked his head a bit. "How exactly did you do that when you were fighting Uzumaki Naruto? How did you use that form?"
Obviously Hizano was referring to the form of the Beast Man which Chouji had taken. Because Chouji had never received a formal mating ceremony gift from Kuma-Oumono the great bear king had told him that, at one point, he would be given one for a simple trinket couldn't be enough. The form of the Beast King was such a gift. Obviously the bears themselves could take no such form. They were the children of the Beast Man and the Yuki Onna, the beings sired from an ancient man gone wild and the essence of winter itself which the Beast Man took as is wife, building her a body from the snow and trapping her within, making the snow into flesh and bone in the process. No bear could take on the form of a man who clearly had been just that, an ancient man strong as a tailed beast and twice as bestial yet far too cunning and intelligent to be called an animal. That form had been Kuma-Oumono's mating ceremony gift to Chouji and had arrived the very instant that Chouji had summoned Yuji-Yuki to help fight against Naruto. The little bear had come with a scroll which was unravelled in front of Chouji's face the moment that the bear cub appeared on his head, forcing Chouji to set eyes on the single symbol to bless the scroll's hide surface before disappearing in a puff of smoke and leaving Chouji to become the Beast Man without even thinking about it. Of course, however, Chouji couldn't ask for Hizano to gain this form from Kuma-Oumono. That was something earned, not simply given. "I got married, Hizano-kun... That Mating Ceremony gift that the bear king gave me was the visage of the Beast Man. My advice is for you to find a nice woman, mate her and have her accepted by the council of the Polar Clan. Though that is easier said than done, of course." Hizano sighed. Chouji frowned at Hizano's sudden loss of spirit. "Listen, Hizano-kun. Ty Dao-chan is right on one thing... She is powerful and has, ever since she has been aware of anything, known what death was. The Hazumi are of an old belief so it can't be helped. However I have confidence that you will eventuially become just as good as her if not better. You won't, however, get any better than her if you dwell on it. I will have you sent to Hyoga Sanmyaku soon since I will be having to take off all missions pretty soon so that I can be with Hinata. Relax... I have confidence in you. You are, after all, my star student." Hizano smiled lightly and turned away, starting his practice kata. Chouji parted from his company then, walking toward the banging noise of his forge. He passed Kyogi on the way, who was still trying to yell himself hoarse. Passing him Chouji made sure to "tap" Kyogi in the head with the side of his shoe, causing Kyogi not only to yell in anger but considerable pain as well.
When Chouji stepped into the forge building, which had been made a bit away from the house for safety reasons, he spotted Hatake Anka, his wonderful student, hammering at what was clearly another kunai. Unlike what she normally wore Anka wore her own set of specialized clothing for smithing. It was, more or less, a knee length woolen skirt with leather sandals and a wollen chest wrapping. Naturally Anka still wore her mask, however. The leather sandals had straps that tied all the way up to her knees, keeping them very firm against the soles of her feet. Still Chouji couldn't help but tink, most embarrassingly, that Anka just looked like she was in ladie's underwear. Her chest wrap was only in place to keep her small breasts from getting in the way and to keep her from looking wholly indecent. It literally only covered her breasts. Her skirtbillowed in her activity and Chouji dared not even imagine if she was wearing anything under. The sandals and mask did little to show that the outfit as a whole was anything more than a bikini with a skirt instead of the bottoms. Still it made Chouji glad that Anka was doing such things, in a way. When Anka had seen Chouji repairing her old family tanto Chouji had been shirtless in woolen shorts and simple sandals of leather as well. Anka, obviously seeing it as proper etiquette (Which it wasn't at all), simply wished to do it as her teacher had. Still it troubled Chouji a bit to see that his student was now getting metal burn spots about her torso from the flying sparks. "Anka-chan, don't you think you should at least get a leather apron? You'll get bad scvars from the burns if you continue to smith like that."
Anka didn't seem to be paying attention but just as Cvhouji was about to yell at her to get her attention she withdrew the Kunai from the anvil and dipped it into the barrel of water, looking back to her teacher. "I like it this way, Chouji-sensei." She said, lifting the kunai out with the tongs and placing it on a gigantic pile of just made kunai identical to the blade Anka had just finished. "I know I'll get scars from the burns but father has many and so do you. Ninja work does that to you, or so says my father." And how right she was. "Anyway, I like the feel of it all... Not to say that I like pain but the sensation of sparks bouncing off of and sticking to my skin is strange, almost pleasant. It's hard to explain, I suppose. I feel at peace when I swing the hammer. When they sparks fly at me if feels like... children. I am the mother of the sparks and they embrace me as such before they burn out; a dying hug to show their appreciation for me bringing them into reality in the first place. When they die I sek to make new ones, siblings of the dead sparks that loved me as a child would before going out... When finally the knife is done I have a more permanent child that not only I care for, but who cares for me."
Chouji was somewhat taken aback by Anka's words. They were... not exactlt foreign but certainly not expected. Anka was, after all, only ten years old, almost eleven. It didn't surprise Chouji that she made a metaphor for her work. It didn't even surprise him that she was attracted to the sparks but that she found them as she did. Anka seemed so much deeper than most of the rookies now that Chouji thought on it. She was always very specialized in her thoughts. Everything was mildly artistic but not enough so to be called as such. It was a tricky line between care and contemplation and Chouji was prone to believe Anka was the one that walked such a line without need of any harness or balance pole. "I can't say I don't understand in a way but I didn't expect you to word it that way. I suppose I can appreciate it though. I wouldn't want to take away a passion from you if you see it that way."
Anka stepped up to Chouji and looked at him for a bit. Chouj was about to ask why she was staring at him but she spoke first. "How tall are you Chouji-sensei?"
Chouji was a bit confused at the question but answered honestly. "Six feet, ten inches."
"And how much do you weigh, would you say?" Anka continued in her questioning. "How much can you often lift with a single arm?"
"I'm roughly six hundred and fifty pounds..." Chouji answered. "I suppose my average maximum lift in one arm is around four hundred if you are talking about over the head for a time or slinging over the shoulder. Why do you ask?"
Anka nodded a bit and walked around Chouji. "You use a club in one of your jutsu, right?"
Chouji was getting more and more confused by the second. "Yes, the earthen club jutsu. It's just earth that I draw from the ground. It's paired with the rubble projectile jutsu I use after the club itself falls apart."
"How much do you think that weighs?" Anka continued, confusing Chouji even more now.
"I'd say a few thousand pounds at first."
"Okay..." Anka finally said after looking Chouji up and down for maybe a minute and a half. "I just wanted to know I suppose."
Chouji didn't dare comment on this. Whatever Anka had been thinking about it must have passed or something. Chouji wasn't at all sure he wanted to know what the little Hatake girl had been thinking. "I suppose I'll leave you to your work again, anyway. You're staying here tonight, right? The rest of the team are and so is Hinata's team. I also think the Nara twins were staying over tonight because their parents wanted to take care of the new baby for a bit without them..." In all honesty Chouji was positive Temari just wanted to finally be able to have sex with Shikamaru again since she had gotten the child out of her and the mandatory wait time had finally finished. Still chouji wouldn't be educating a ten year old on these facts if he could help it. Anka nodded and Chouji assumed that it was a decided "yes" on his question about her staying over.
Most recently one or more of the students had been staying over since Hinata didn't mind, Chouji was well trusted and they were all team members anyway. Along with the fact that most of these children belonged to good friends Chouji and Hinata's home was a veritable fortress of things to do that couldn't possibly be done in he village proper. Temano would have always had a difficult time practicing mass mokuton jutsu in the village proper just as Kyogi couldn't exactly tunnel in the village without uprooting water piping. Hizano often disturbed other Hyuuga members with his katas and they couldn't care less about his staying with Chouji. Maya had an adoptive father who knew less about taking care of her than he did about ninja work in general, which was decidedly little and thus pawned her off, albeit not out of neglect for his beloved adpted daughter, as often as he could spare. Ty Dao herself actually had no guardian at all and was her own mother, daugter, father and brother as far as things went. If Ty Dao spent a week away from ome it wasn't as if she would yell at herself for not being home on time for dinner. Shikana and Shikani were so close to family anyway it was ridiculous. Shikamaru knew nothing bad would come of Chouji's presence in their lives and Temari was, more or less, just as trusting though perhaps for separate reasons. If anything Anka and Asame were the lest alowed to stay over the night at Hinata and Chouji's but that was simply because they had real families. Anka had both Kakashi and Anko, both of which were quite attached to her though they didn't mind at all if she stayed a few nights away with her teachers if only to bang on metal all day and night. It was better than having her bang on metal in the house while everyone slept, that was for sure. Asame had Kurenai though the genjutsu master was very attached to her daughter. Asame as well wasn't all that close to Chouji despite the historical connection to her mother. She was the quiet one of the rookies.
Chouji slowly made his way toward the house again, tapping Kyogi on the back of the head with his foot as he walked by again. "You better get out of their soon, Kyogi-kun... Some hungry animal may come by and start chewing on your hair." Chouji smiled as he kept walking, barely noticing at all that Kyogi was burning a spot in his back as he walked off. Finally as he got to the back door of the house, Kyogi perhaps fifty feet away Chouji stomped on the ground and Kyogi flew clean from the dirt and onto his rear. "And make sure to wipe your feet when you come in." Chouji said smiling. He knew very well that Kyogi would be completely covered, head to toe, in grime and Hinata wouldn't let him in the house if he tried to body flicker past her; at least not until he cleaned himself up or stripped naked and got her to kick him upstairs to the bathroom as he ran up in his skivies. Now that Chouji thought about it he chuckled a bit. That would be a site.
As Chouji sat on the large couch he felt arms wrapping around his neck from behind and they certainly weren't Hinata's. No, Maya's hands were the hands that wrapped around Chouji's neck and not out of care. Maya's arms squeezed around Chouji's neck and he bolted upright, trying to throw the crazy foreign girl from his body, finally succeeding over a minute later after everyone had milled into he room to watch the spectacle. Chouji breathed heavily, trying to regain his breath after Maya had tried to strangle all of it out of him. "Chouji-sensei..." She started with a look of mild irritation on her face. "You never train Maya..."
Chouji sighed and nodded as he walked back out the door, the rest of the people clearing out as Maya followed Chouji. Kyogi passed Chouji looking angry and when he stepped to the door and opened it sure enough Hinata was right there remarking about how he was better to go home if he thought he could track dirt into her home like he was trying to. Hinata had truly gotten more firm about things since Chouji's entering her life. He still liked the shy Hinata but it was nice that she now had something of a stern side. Contrary to what most people tried to lead her away from thinking at most times Hinata had been the shy little girl of the rookies. She hadn't been useless, per se, though she certainly wasn't the top member of the rookies. No, Hinata was that shy little girl who got stepped on too much and then thanked those who used her as a doormat because she was too scared to cry about it. It really had worked out for the better that Hinata had gotten her heart broken because if that hadn't happened Chouji would have never found such love and Hinata wuld still be swooning over a man who didn't know she existed. With those thoughts all done he turned back to Maya. It disturbed him how adult she looked. On average Chouji would look at Maya's real age and tack on about six years to figure out what she would look like physically. It was about right. Maya looked as though she was fifteen going on sixteen when she was actually nine going on ten. Little girls shouldn't look that old unless there was some crazy genetic circumstance behind it.
In actuality that was exactly the case. Ibana Maya was a literal walking relic of an ancient time of the Ninja continent. The Ibana Clan had long ago been chased over seas to the Southern Continent, which Maya was a native of. Her people cross bred with the people of that continent, grew less like ninja and more like wild tribesmen. They learned the language and sunk into a new culture and now an Ibana returned changed from the historical texts to show that even though they were originally a ninja clan they now more closely resembled an amazoness tribe. The Ibana of the times of chaos, when the ninja clans still simply walked around fighting, were a seldom speaking clan of women who were, above all things, very plain. They werer statuesque women who matured quickly but were always just attractive enough not to be ugly. Their skin was the palest of white, their eyes, as Maya's were, deep purple with small variations within. This was the Yuwakugan. Now the Yuwakugan was the only relic of the old Ibana people. Now they were all women who still matured disturbingly quickly. However, they didn't have pale skin. Their skin was dark, almost as dark as healthy earth. Their hair, though still black, lacked the silkiness that it supposedly possessed when Ibana were a ninja clan. Their bodies were anything but plain; No, the Ibana now most certainly were all ridiculously attractive women, voluptuous and touchable. They weren't the short, geisha-like people they used to be. Now the Ibana existed as seductresses still, but as near wordless dark beauties instead of pale geishas. This was the change that several hundred years made on an entirely different continent to a people and Chouji thought it no doubt for the better... Or would had it not been a near ten years old girl who looked like his teenage fantasy.
Maya had grown bored of waiting while Chouji thought, already having scurried off into the growing twilight that was beginning to coat the area. In general this was all Chouji needed to do when Maya asked to be trained. He would bring her somewhere, stare at her for a bit and, in her boredom, she would go off and train herself far better than Chouji could dare try to train her. Chouji hadn't the slightest clue how to train a little girl whose style didn't come from even the same continent as him. He was better off letting her train herself. In fact she had nearly gotten through the chuunin exam with those self taught sklls in the first place. It was a good thing he supposed. Slowly he walked back in and opened the door to see Kyogi sitting in a towel on the couch, scratching the back of his head idly as he seemed to wait for something. Chouji just smiled. "I'm guessing Hinata decided she had to wash your clothes."
"No thanks to you, Chouji-sensei..." Kyogi spoke immediately, but without much offense in his voice.
"Kyogi-kun... What was that technique and how did you learn it?" Chouji's eyes went very serious at this just as Kyogi turned to look at him, now a bit taken by surprise at chouji's serious look.
"I found it when I was tunneling." He said slowly. "I was boring through a section of heavy metal and I saw something that didn't seem right when I hit an open spot. It was a scroll and even though I had burned the bottom half I learned what it had in it pretty quickly. It seems like a good techinque too. It knocked you clean through the air with no effort at all."
"Do you have this scroll still?" Chouji asked sternly
"Ya, I do. I brought it with me too. It's in my bag." Kyogi answered.
"Then I suggest you go get it now!" Chouji said loudly, making Kyogi jump a bit before going to get his bag, bringing back the half burnt scroll. Chouji looked at th scroll. How had Kyogi been able to read this? What wasn't burned or decayed was in a language Chouji didn't even think could have existed properly in they time of the scholars before ninjutsu had been created. Clearly this was a ninja technique of some kind so it had to have been made after the sage of the six paths existed. It wa all very foreign to Chouji. There were, however, illustrations on the scroll which seemed to depict energy moving through the body and leaving it violently. The first scene showed what seemed to be energy building up throughout the body. The next showed the energy flooding to the hands and the last the energy blasting from every part of the hand itself. The final image was too burnt to make out. If Kyogi had figured out such a potent technique from those three pictures he had a hell of an ability to infer. It just looked like half of any diagram for a jutsu involving hands. "I can't read it..."
"I can, kind of." Kyogi said, lookng at the scroll from behind Chouji. "It basically says to focus chakra to your hands but not to let it back out when you relax. Most of the techinque was made through self development. I could show you slower how I did it." Chouji looked at Kyogi as the Nagamori stepped back. " First you gather all of the chakra you can, letting it boil up to activity. Then you push it all to your hands or another appendage." With this comment Kyogi extended his hands. "Naturally the chakra, when not being actively pushed out, will try to move back throughout your body but you cut it off first. With nowhere to go it explodes outwa--" Kyogi stopped as the chakra left his body most explosively. The biggest problem was that chakra wasn't the only thing to leave his hands. His flesh tore itself off of Kyogi's hands as they seemed to rip themselves apart in one sudden burst of activity. Blood splattered everywhere and Kyogi screamed in pain, kneeling to the ground.
Chouji was caught dumb at the sight of all of this, the other rookies running into the room and staring in horror as Chouji finally was first to regain his coherence. Hizano also quickly gained coherence, trying to help Chouji by rushing to the bathroom for a first aid kit. Chouji picked up Kyogi and set him at the sink in the ktchen, trying to get him somewhere to wash his near destroyed hands. Chouji didn't understand, didn't know what to do aside from basic medical procedure. Regardless the Akimichi knew quite well that this was not a standard wound. Kyogi hands had exploded, that wasn't a normal injury. It was, just as Chouji was getting the water hot and Hizano was rushing down the stairs while everyone else started running around like idiots that Maya leaped bodily through the window, landing in a tumble next to Kyogi and Chouji before standingand grabbing Kyogi's wrists. Naturally Kyogi screamed and tried to pull away but Maya would have nothing of such things, punching him square in the nose in an attempt to make him stop crying out in pain. Surprisingly he shut up, though only for a bit. In one fluid movement, however, Maya had literally ripped her top off to wrap Kyogi's hands together. Hinata was more than happy to beat Temano, who had just showed up a bit ago, and Hizano from the room. Chouji, however, stayed where he was, not at all caring about Maya half nude in front of him as he cared about the fact that Maya was taking such things right into her own hands when medical supplies were so close. "Maya-chan, we have medical supplies, untie his hands!"
"No! Maya know what do!" Maya yelled, dragging Kyogi by his wrists straight out the door, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. Kyogi, of course, wasn't having fun. His hands must have felt horrible and the fact that Maya was towing him around by his bloody wrists couldn't have been helping. Still Maya was running and towing Kyogi behind her all the same. Chouji instructed Hinata to stay and ran after them. A brisk run through the woods led Chouji to find Kyogi at the nearby river with Maya, her top still off but now covered in river mud and wrapped securely around Kyogi's hands in a much more delicate fashion. She led his hands to the mud bank and had him submerge them in the much as Chouji approached, looking to him. Her eyes were the true Yuwakugan now; sky blue pupils, glittering purple irises and the deep gray sclera. That is how she had gotten Kyogi to calm down enough to dip his hands in the muck, no doubt. Chouji stepped up and Maya held her hand out. "Let poison flow away, sensei. Kyo-kun have bad luck. Maya helping..."
Chouji was confused as suddenly Kyogi started whimpering softly. Maya's eyes had gone normal though Kyogi no doubt knew he had to remain still, even no longer controlled by her eyes. "It... It hurts, Maya-chan."
Maya nodded. "You find Ibana Scroll. Maya see from window. Kyo-kun learn bad thing. Ibana bury scroll good reason..." Maya stated. All of her sentences were, of course, broken ones. She suffered the standard partial aphasia of her clan. It was, in all respects, the genetic inability to speak any language but her own. Maya could read and write but often stumbled over spelling words right. She barely could speak the standard common language of the ninja at all as well. "Now keep hands in mud for hour. Maya stay while Kyo-kun wait."
Chouji sighed. "Maya-chan, you need to get something on youtr chest, it's indecent." Chouji pulled off his jacket and placed it on Maya's shoulders, covering her well enough for Kyogi not to see her breasts. It wasn't like Kyogi was exactly paying attention to such objects at that time but when the pain died down, if the pain died down, he might get the idea that staring at some young woman's chest would well rid him of his pain. "What will happen to his hands, Maya-chan?"
"He soak in mud," Maya started. "Then he wrap them three days with special herb. Maya will make. Not sure Ninja place have herb but Maya get something." Maya put her arms through the arms of the jacket and sighed. "Three days heal then Kyo-kun good as new." Chouji was a bit relieved of course. He didn't want his student to be permanently hurt.
"I'll ask later what that jutsu really did to him... until then... I suppose I'll leave you to take care of him... I'll be back at the house, Maya-chan." Chouji said as he turned. Maya nodded and Kyogi made no noise at all save for some whimpering. Soon enough Chouji was back in his home, tending to comforting Hinata's scared mind with the information that Maya had given him. Three days he would be fine, or so Maya insisted. Hinata wasn't sure but it seemed good enough.
Hinata didn't bother to leave to check on the two, however. No, if Chouji thought Maya was good enough Hinata wouldn't doubt it. What kind of wife would Hinata be if she couldn't trust her husband and his students? Still she would go outside for a bit. She stepped out of the front door and breathed deep. Naturally she was a bit fatigued and more than a bit nauseous after seeing the gruesome display of her student's hands exploding right in front of her. It wasn't something she at all wanted to ever see again. Whatever it had been that Kyogi did it wasn't a safe thing to do and Hinata would try to go to great lengths to prevent it from ever again happening. It was bad enough that her students were occasionally put to harm on missions but their hands bursting with blood in the middle of a night off... That was simply horrible to endure.
As she opened her eyes she was, however, welcomed with a much more pleasant sight. In the distance Shikani and Shikana closed in on the home. Hinata decided walking up and meeting them half way would be a good thing. Quickly she stepped forward, raising a hand to wave. The two noticed her and rushed forward, stopping next to her. "Hi Hinata-sensei!" Both of them spoke in unison. The Nara twins seldom acted separately unless forced to. Hinata wondered if they could read each other's minds on occasion but no doubt the two just always thought like the other one. Idly she wondered if her Father and Uncle acted similar when they were both alive. Still she shook this thought. There was no way that Hinata's father would have been like that.
"It's good to see you two here tonight." She spoke up after a half an instant of thinking. "How are your parents?"
Again, in unison, the two spoke. "Doing naughty things!" At that moment Shikana separated herself from Shikani's speech and spooke independantly. "We left to Asame-chan's house to see she wanted to come here too but," Shikani then cut her sister off and finished the sentence, "Kurenai-senpai said that it was their family night."
This was one of the only times that the twins didn't speak in unison and such was when they were starting a sentence with one twin and finishing it with the other. It almost always happened one way or the other if the two were in each other's presence. Hinata couldn't help but to blush a bit about the twins' first statement. Doing naughty things sounded about right, anyway. Shikamaru was no doubt complaining about how being on top was troublesome about now while Temari complained that he was being irresponsible for being so lazy. The very thought made Hinata giggled a bit, causing the twins to cock their heads a bit. She quickly cut off her giggling and shook her head. "Let's get inside. We have some fresh baked cakes inside that I made only a couple hours ago." Oh yes, some would be a good number to explain until the twins set eyes on the ridiculous amount of baked goods Hinata had been slaving over. It wasn't like she could really help it. For some reason carbohydrates were on Hinata's most current craving list and when the call of carbs hit her Hinata couldn't help but make far too many bready items for her own good. There was no way she could possibly eat all of them before they were to go bad but that alone wouldn't stop her from making them. Baked goods could always be given to others if they couldn't find a good home in the belly of an expecting mother like Hinata or in the vast black hole that was the stomach of her beloved.
As they entered the house Hinata spotted Hizano, Temano and Chouji alike cleaning up the floor where Kyogi had experienced his "accident." Hinata was glad that they had hardwood flooring because carpet would have sucked up the blood like a towel and never given it back. No, it was better for hardwood at this time. Shikana and Shikani, however, seemed to have already drifted off to the kitchen as Hinata was thinking and from both came a gasp of disbelief. "No way Hinata-sensei!" The two called. "You can't have," Shikani started, "Really made all of this by yourself!" Shikana finished. Shikana immediately looked at Chouji who nodded to allow her to have at it. Shikani had less manners, however, than her twin sister and was already picking out a muffin from one of the five heaping plates.
"Of course I made them all, girls." Hinata started. "I wouldn't be a very good wife or mother if I couldn't bake like this, would I?"
Shikana giggled at this as Shikani spoke. "That would make Mama a bad wife and mom." Shikani started. "Ya, she sucks at anything that involves an oven. All that she makes good is curry and ramen!"
Chouji smiled at this. "I agree she does make good curry." He spoke, remembering his very first night back in Konoha when he ate at Shikamaru's home with their family. "But I won't say anything about any other cooking of hers. She may be listening." Shikana and Shikani both laughed, Shikani nearly falling over. Of course they all knew better but at least Chouji's joke was appreciated.
Hinata sighed and spoke up. "I am going to wander a bit, do some cleaning and maybe take a bath. You two feel free to make yourselves at home, alright." The twins didn't bother responding save for nods of acknowledgement. Hinata quickly fled up the stairs to the next floor, leaving the others to amuse themselves. She quickly did a little count in her head. Kyogi and Maya were at the river. Temano, Hizano and Chouji were all downstairs and so were the Nara Twins. The sound of a hammer striking metal told Hinata very reliably that Anka would still be in Chouji's workshop banging down kunai and the like. Where would Ty Dao be though? She had disappeared after heading in from her sparring match with Hizano and Hinata wouldn't bother using her byakugan even in such a large house. It would be far more effective, of corse, but Hinata didn't need to spend chakra that she would otherwise be using to nurture the child within when she could just walk around and look. Hinata walked all over the house and found no traces of the her student. Finally she just assumed that Ty Dao was out running or training or something of that sort. She resigned to a bath before heading down and joining the rest again.
Walking into the top floor bathroom she spotted just who she had been looking for. As she stripped down Ty Dao opened the screen door to the bathing area and looked out through the crack, making sure not to be seen. She made a small noise of surprise and opened the door further. "I apologize, I didn't know it was you at first, Hinata-sensei. Are you going to be joining me?" Hinata smiled and nodded before stepping inside the screened off area and closing the screen behind her. "I came here a while ago to take some time to relax. You guys have really amazing water systems. It's really hot and really clean."
Hinata couldn't help but to inwardly chuckle at these words. When Chouji had made the house here on this land he had used some jutsu or something of that sort to get pipes over a mile down into the ground. All of the water that was hot came from the hot springs that were abundant around Konoha. Often it paid to have a husband who could travel through water as a fish traveled through water. The best part about it was that unlike the fish who would always jump from the water wet Chouji never carried unwanted dirt with him when he emerged from the earth. "I like it." Hinata mentioned softly. "I was looknig for you. I guess we both had the same idea." Ty Dao nodded. "I was wondering where you had gone and I didn't feel like using the Byakugan. You have been doing very well."
Ty Dao shook her head, naturally her mask always covering her face. Only a few people alive had ever clearly seen Ty Dao's face. Hinata was one such person who Ty Dao trusted to clearly see her face. "I have been doing alright I suppose... Still I don't like that I am still so slow comparably. I remember seeing that one fast Amegakure girl at the Chuunin Exam. She went really fast too..."
Hinata smiled, looking at Ty Dao's nude form. Ty Dao's breasts were suppsedly a constant enemy to the young woman. She battled with them every day to get them wrapped down so they wouldn't get in the way. Still to see the ashen steam trails painted on her body in such a way was rather interesting. Hinata hadn't ever read about the forms of ascension that the Hazumi apparently possessed. Now that she read it all up it seemed, at least with Kyogi and Ty Dao, that there was more than just this if the two worked hard enough and attained a certain level of skill. Ty Dao's clan, the Hazumi, revered the speed of heat as a sort of final calling. Granted Hinata was aware of the legend of the first Hazumi. Supposedly he sped to the center of the desert that now was the Wind Country before bursting into nonexistence at the spee of heat, parching what had been a jungle then into the desert that it was now. Naturally Hinata doubted this actually happened but she wouldn't dwell on it at all. If Ty Dao ever attained such a speed Hinata just wanted her student to be at a place where nobody would get hurt by it. Still, if what the Hazumi believed was true, Ty Dao's reaching the speed of heat would turn her into something vastly different from a human being.
Kyogi similarly had a sort of prophesy that he alone in the team could fulfill. This prophesy was, however, proven. Kyogi's own ancestors had proved it many a time though, as far as Hinata knew none of the currently living Nagamori possessed a fully unlocked Goukagan. If Kyogi bathed his eyes in molten lava, the very melted essence of the earth itself, the flame from within the planet, he would by far surpasswhat he could now do. His heated beams would become nothing at all compared to his new power, the ability to tap into the very essence of flame itself, magma. He would learn to fire magma from his own eyes and throw lashes of controlled flame forth. Alone this would make him a far more powerful katon user than nearly anyone on the planet. Still, Hinata believed that Kyogi bathing his eyes in a volcanic was about as likely as Ty Dao reaching the true speed of heat and still be alive to tell the tale afterward. That was to say it would clearly be impossible. Nobody could truly reach the speed of heat and even Kyogi wouldn't have the courage and stupidity to dip his face into a bubbling pool of magma. As far as Temano's fate Hinata couldn't guess one way or another. Naturally the patterns on his arms showed that he had ascended, as his teammates had, to a new sort of level in the ways of Mokuton chakra. Still, Hinata didn't have enough evidence as to what wood users could do. Naturally the world didn't. Temano was only the third of his kind, the first being the first hokage and the second being Temano's own father, Tenzou, who had been injected with the first Hokage's DNA to give him such traits. It was only natural that Hinata hadn't nearly enough material to study Temano's abilities and the limit of them thereafter. "I think that you are fine how you are and knowing you that girl won't be able to beat you if she ever tries. Nobody beats my speed demon in a foot race." Hinata said smiling.
Ty Dao blushed openly, the blush only able to be seen above her mask but still very obvious. "I hope so... If I got beat by someone other than a Hazumi I would kick myself. One of these days I'll reach the speed of heat and be faster than anything." Hinata giggled at this and Ty Dao looked at her. "Hinata-sensei... Do you think I'll reach the speed of heat ever?" Ty Dao's face was now wreathed in seriousness. Naturally Hinata had nothing she could say that wouldn't hurt Ty Dao's feelings and still wouldn't be a lie.
Finally, after almost a minute of pause Hinata answered. "Ty Dao-chan... I am sorry... I have a difficult time believing anyone could ever reach that speed." Ty Dao looked slightly hurt at these words and Hinata quickly snapped back. "Of course I think you can easily be faster than anyone but it seems awfully fast, you know? Think about how much chakra it would take, after all."
Ty Dao looked into the pool of water the two now sat in. "I know I should give up... Only one man has ever reached such a speed and he died... I know if I do it there is a good chamnce I'll die..." Ty Dao then perked up, however. "But I know I will be better! After all, if he could do it I can do it better. The Hazumi clan has done everything that the first Hazumi has save for attaining the speed of heat. Now I will be the one to do it and I will be the one to do it not once but twice and more. It seems stupid but I know I can do it... And even if you don't believe me I know someone will."
Hinata was mildly taken aback by these words. It was certainly a powerful statement. She shook her head with a smile and grabbed a bucket, filling it and pouring the water ovr Ty Dao's head. The young woman turned a little insulted to address her teacher but Hinata could only giggle. "I appreciate your enthusiasm but what about learning the more advanced fever jutsu first?"
Ty Dao lightened up at this, a smile forming under her mask. "I suppose you're right. I need to learn some other things first before the speed of heat is attained. Still... Do you think we could go back to Hyoga Sanmyaku some time, Hinata-sensei? I want to try something."
Hinata shrugged. "I don't know. That's something you would have to ask Chouji, not me."
Ty Dao thought for a moment. "Where do you think Hyoga Sanmyaku is, anyway, Hinata-sensei?"
Hinata shook her head at this. "I think it's some place that not even my eyes can see. No doubt only the bears themselves know where it is in relation to other places. That said, I am sure it is very far north."
Ty Dao again thought for a bit. She eventually seemed to throw aside her thoughts with a shrug. "So what are you planning on naming the baby?"
Hinata giggled at this. "I don't know yet. Which of the two are you planning on dating; Hizano-kun or Kyogi-kun?"
Ty Dao turned red all over and it wasn't from the heated water she now sat in. "Well I... I don't know yet. I haven't even thought of it other than at the Chuunin Exam. I mean... both of them are pretty nice, good people. Still, I don't feel any love for either of them... I have a rule, a plan. I will only love a man who defeates me, utterly and completely. So far neither one can come close and even the higher jounin in the village like Lee-senpai never put up a too one sided fight against me. I have yet to ever meet true defeat. I have never before been utterly beaten into submission and until I am nobody will steal my heart."
Hinata couldn't help but heave a sigh. "You shouldn't be so choosy, Ty Dao-chan. One of these days a man will outright beat you and that day you'll have to choose him. What if he is a real enemy or someone that you hate?"
Ty Dao shook her head. "It wouldn't matter. The Hazumi, until just recently, has divided itself wholly from all major conflict, even when Konoha wiped out Kagerougakure No Sato the Hazumi stayed decidedly out of the battle proper. I am, first and foremost, a Hazumi clan member. If he is a true enemy he may do with me what he likes as a spoil of war or whatever he may call me. As somebody I will hate it wouldn't matter. Hatred I may hold for him but I choose not for true love. The Hazumi pair off more for excellent genes instead of for real love. Besides..." Ty Dao paused at this moment, looking at the water. "I have a feeling that when I am finally beaten soundly... I will fall madly in love for someone regardless of who it may be. Perhaps even my most hated enemy will become my most precious lover through that very trial."
Hinata again sighed. "If that is what you think then I cannot say otherwise but please do think on it. You never know when the one beating you soundly is wanting you truly dead."
Ty Dao shook her head. "I have heard it once before from a man. There is a lack of perfect breasts in the world. It would be a shame to waste yours. This was said to my mother by a man before she died. My father was very angry... I have those same breasts and I am sure a man wouldn't waste my body when I was to offer it so wholly to him."
Hinata paused in mild confusion. She supposed Ty Dao was getting a bit older every day. "Your mother still was killed, was she not?"
Ty Dao nodded. "Yes... By a woman, not a man."
Hinata nodded only just. "I am sorry." Ty Dao shook her head at this. "Let's get off the sad topics though... How about, after this, we go eat some cake." Ty Dao smiled and nodded. This all seemed just to much for Hinata now. It would be better to return to it after everything blew over. After the pregnancy was up and after Ty Dao became a jounin... After Hinata got down a few pieces of apple pie at least.
{HR}
There you have it everyone! No trust me, those ascendance things WILL happen, just not in this fic trilogy. They are left for Snow, Fever and Sunburst! Anyway this chapter wasn't all that great. Kyogi's ability was actually an old Ibana technique that had been hidden away and Kyogi's tunneling had uncovered it. The Ame character from the Chuunin Exam that Ty Dao talked about was Umori Kodama, who doesn't have speed in general as her power, mind you. Still that is for another chapter, not this author's note.
Nothing really else to say
Yours,
Tankou001