Chouji liked Daichi Inuzuka. He was a kind man that always managed to make time for him, even after the longest, most difficult day in the hospital. No matter how bad his day had been, Daichi would make sure that he had time for Chouji during the weekend so that he could teach him about medical ninjutsu. At first Sakura had been with them too, but she had decided that she wanted to focus some more on another concentration if Chouji really was good enough that Daichi felt he could be one of the best.
"Ah! You're early, Chouji."
There was something off with the brightness in the man's eyes. But there was a bright smile on his lips, so Chouji didn't question that too much. Adults tended to overcomplicate their lives- Daichi was most probably perfectly fine, albeit slightly tired.
"Mom asked me to bring you guys some food." He explained as he raised the large bag filled with all kinds of meats and delicacies. "And dad told me to tell you 'thank you for everything'."
Daichi's smile broadened at the sight of the paper bag and he swooped down to take it from Chouji's hands. "Ah, this is the good stuff! You parents sure know how to bribe a vulnerable Inuzuka!"
Chouji wasn't completely sure just what he meant by that but he certainly didn't question it. Daichi tended to be as weird as Kiba sometimes, so he knew better than to question a lot of the stuff he said. Instead of asking or wondering, the Akimichi began to make his way towards the man's office so they could continue on their lessons.
"I'll be up there in a moment, kay, kid?"
"Yes, sir!"
All of the dogs that had been laying in wait until Daichi disappeared chose to appear just as Chouji began to make his way up the home's stairs. They struck as a single unit, flying from their various hiding places to pounce on the young boy with their tails wagging in pure excitement.
Already completely accustomed to the dogs' behavior, Chouji allowed himself to be taken to the ground with chuckles of enjoyment bubbling from his lips. He did his best to pet as many dogs as he could, but he only had two hands and there were more than six eager dogs barking at him for his attention. Noses bumped at his body, tongues licked up his hands, arms, and face, and a couple of paws swiped at him in search of his attention.
Inuzuka dogs, in his eyes, were the cutest companions to have and made the best non-human friends, too. He could totally understand why it was that the Inuzuka took such good care of them and insisted on making them their lifelong partners. And, honestly, he couldn't wait for Kiba to finally get his own dog. That way, they would always have an Inuzuka dog with them, not just whenever they visited their friend's home.
"Stop you're shouting!"
The dogs stopped their constant whining, yipping, and barking as soon as they heard the young boy's growl. But they didn't stop squirming or looking to capture Chouji's affections.
Craning his neck, the Akimichi did his best to see his best friend through the sea of fur and slobber. Standing right side up, even though he looked upside down to the boy on the floor, Kiba Inuzuka looked down at the floor with a small frown on his lips. He looked as if he had just woken up with his hair even wilder than usual and his eyes somewhat puffy.
"Hi, Kiba."
"Heya, Chouji." Kiba waved lazily, then cocked his head to the side slightly. "Is the floor comfortable?"
"A bit." The Akimichi shrugged, which managed to make Kiba chuckle softly before he headed over and offered his hand.
Chouji took it without any hesitation and jumped up when Kiba pulled him up. The dogs whined at losing their captive, but a quick sneer from Kiba managed to make them shut up soon enough.
"C'mon... I swear, we can't leave either of you alone unless we want ya gettin' jumped..." Kiba huffed in slight exasperation, but Chouji didn't try and argue against him. It was the truth. Whenever he or Sakura were left alone in their friend's house, they would get ambushed by the dogs so they could be pet. Neither of them minded it, but the Inuzuka were never happy to see them on the bottom of a dog pile.
Kiba led him into the study where they had learned their first bits of medical ninjutsu. It was just as unkempt and rowdy as the first time Chouji had stepped inside, but he was used to the mess and could navigate it almost as well as Daichi could by now.
Both boys made themselves comfortable in whatever perches they could find and Chouji opened up the book Daichi had last left him with while Kiba yawned sleepily and began to allow sleep to take him yet again.
Daichi walked in to find Chouji reading and Kiba snoring softly about ten minutes after they entered. Chouji was able to see the man halt and look at his son, a fond smile appearing on his lips as his eye softened at the sight.
Daichi Inuzuka loved his son. Chouji knew this because it was so easy to see. Sometimes, though, it felt like Kiba wasn't aware of just how much his father actually cared about him.
"Alright. Are you ready for today, Chouji?"
"Yes sir!"
He loved learning from this man. It was a shame Sakura had stopped coming to their lessons, but he could understand that she didn't really need to learn medical ninjutsu if he was busying himself with it.
Daichi smiled back at him with as much energy as Chouji felt. He was ready to learn as much as Daichi was willing to teach him!
"Rainy days suck."
Sakura hummed in agreement, even though her eyes never left the window she was staring out of.
Lunch was supposed to be the time of the school day in which they were allowed to run around like the true children they were. It was the only time of day in which they were allowed to stretch their legs outside of the classroom and they didn't really have to worry too much about pissing off a teacher because of how loudly they were laughing.
Unfortunately, today's lunch would be spent stuck inside the classroom: the worst place to spend their lunch inside.
"Kiba, Sakura, Naruto, please. Pay attention. This will be coming on the test."
Sakura looked back at Iruka Sensei and took note of the kind of sad look on his face. She smiled softly back at him, which made him nod before he continued with his explanation of Konoha's great victory in the Second Shinobi World War.
She already knew most of this, though, so she looked back outside of the window and continued to curse the dark gray sky that torture them with rain. Kiba continued to glare at the sky and Sakura was pretty sure that he hadn't bothered with looking at their teacher when they had been called. Naruto was looking at the board with a completely annoyed look on his face.
Today had started off so well! But then the rain had come and sucked all the life outside of their class and Sakura couldn't help but hate the rain.
Not only would she be missing out on a fun lunch, but they had already missed out on sparring matches during their physical education period because of all the rain. Instead of doing anything fun, Iruka Sensei had sat them down to teach them about chakra and how it coursed through your body and you were able to manipulate it with enough concentration... Again.
Normally, she didn't mind learning. Usually, she was all up for learning from their teacher. But the Old Man had already beat knowledge about chakra into them a couple of weeks ago and had promised to teach them how to start manipulating it next time he came back. It was with the condition that they have food and drinks prepared for him for the whole time he would stay in Konoha, but the three of them already had a set allowance to spend on Kuzu put to the side, so that really wasn't anything they had to actually worry about.
"If I could, I'd punch the sky to make it stop raining." Sakura whispered to her best friend, which made Kiba huff and nod in agreement, even as his eyes continued concentrated on the sky.
"The sky deserves to get it's ass kicked."
Sakura breathed out and looked back at the board, jotted down a couple of dates she knew were important, and began to wonder just what in the world they would do if they weren't able to leave the academy for their lunch.
If she hated being locked up inside a classroom during this hour, Kiba loathed it. He was kind of like a caged animal whenever he was inside of a closed space during a normal day. But when he was stuck inside a classroom during lunch... Well, last time this had happened, he'd gotten into a fight with Naruto over who would end up being the Hokage one day.
She'd have to come up with something to save Iruka Sensei the headache of having to deal with an irritated and hyperactive Kiba Inuzuka...
Well... She guessed that it couldn't hurt to run through some taijutsu poses taught to them by the Old Man in the corner of the classroom... That might keep Kiba busy...
Kiba frowned in concentration as tried to keep his shoulders relaxed, even as he tried to repeat Kuzu's motions for the awkward attack.
Inuzuka were taught to fight on all fours. But Kuzu said that it would be for the best for him to know more than just one fighting stance if he wanted to survive out in the real world, so he had been teaching all three of them how to properly fight.
The poses were awkward for him, but Kiba knew that they were powerful from just having seen the sheer strength Kuzu carried in his stance when he was teaching them the steps.
"Okay..." Sakura breathed out as she tried to keep her voice from quivering, just as concentrated on proper stance as he was. "Now... Punch!"
All three children struck out in a synchronized tempo, punching at the air before them. Then, repeating Kuzu's steps, they threw their left arm out, only to follow with a vicious front kick at the air before them.
Just like all the other times before, when it was time for them to follow the front kick with a roundhouse with their left leg, they all fell short.
Kiba growled in frustration as he threw himself at the floor, all the while Sakura and Chouji huffed and remained a bit more composed.
"This is impossible!"
"We just have to keep training, Kiba. Don't worry, we'll get it eventually." Chouji tried to encourage him, but Kiba frowned and stuck his tongue out at him.
Inuzuka fought on all fours. They didn't do this two-legged stuff. It was awkward and weird. It didn't matter how powerful their strikes could be in this stance; it wasn't a worthwhile trade off in his eyes.
"Children?"
Kiba looked away from Chouji to find their teacher looking at them with an unreadable expression on his face. Even though he was pretty good at keeping his face devoid of emotions, Kiba could smell the worry and confusion wafting off of him.
"Whadya want, dude?"
Iruka Sensei frowned at him for a second before clearing his throat. "Where did you three learn that technique?"
Kiba frowned at the question and shrugged, "Saw it in a book."
Distrust now tainted the man's scent but Kiba didn't care. Even though Iruka Sensei didn't trust them, they weren't about to tell him anything that dealt with the Old Man. They had learned their lesson years ago and they had sworn on a promise. And once you made a promise, you couldn't just break it. That's not how the world worked.
"Kiba..." He warned, making the Inuzuka scoff and roll his eyes.
"Really, Iruka Sensei." Sakura insisted and Kiba just let her convince their teacher.
He didn't really trust Kiba. And, really, the Inuzuka couldn't blame the guy for it. He was a trouble maker and a bit of a loose cannon. Sakura, though, was mostly straight laced and barely ever lied... Or, at least, that's what most people thought. She had become a rather proficient liar in the past years they had been friends and her enjoyment of breaking some rules had only grown.
Apparently, Sakura had always been like Kiba in her blatant disregard for rules. She had just acted like a goody two-shoes most of her life because she hadn't had anybody around her to teach her another way. With Kiba in her corner, though, she had shown off some pretty wicked true colors that made him truly appreciate her.
If anything, Chouji was the only straight laced one among them. But, even then, he was learning how to lie as well.
Man... Was he a bad influence?
... Nah. He was a great influence!
"Chouji and I can't really copy the Inuzuka fighting style. It's really hard. So we found this book in the library and learned some of the basic attacks." Sakura insisted, sounding so honest that Iruka's scent began to lose its distrusting edge. "We can't get out of the classroom today, so we thought it'd be a good time to practice... We aren't bothering anyone, are we?"
Iruka Sensei shook his head, "Not really. I was just wondering where you three learned that style from... Its a bit... Harsher than I would think appropriate for kids."
"Harsher?" Chouji questioned, "What do you mean, Sensei?"
The man scratched the back of his head, then pulled up a chair and sat down in front of them.
Kiba sat up as his own friends moved closer so they could listen to their teacher.
"Well, the steps you're following ask for a lot of strength to be thrown into your attacks. It's the kind of technique I'd expect to see in a ninja that was raised outside of Konoha, honestly... Most of our books teach speed rather than strength."
Oh... Well, the Old Man did seem much more inclined to strength rather than speed. He was strong and powerful; there was no need for him to be completely fast if he could defend himself.
"Oh... Well..." Sakura faltered and Kiba shrugged and spoke up for her.
"It looked cool, dude. Are you going to scold us for learning?"
"Not at all." Iruka Sensei sighed, "I just want to ask you to look at some other stances. Clearly this one's giving you some trouble. How about you take a look at some other sequences?"
They all blinked at him.
Kiba had honestly expected a scolding.
Huh... Unexpected.
"Where should we start, Iruka Sensei?"
The man smiled and Kiba felt his stomach drop.
They were all sent home with extra homework in the form of an attack sequence that focused more on speed rather than strength.
Kiba blamed the Old Man.
"Hmmm... These are rather... Interesting reports, Iruka."
The man nodded slowly at the Hokage's observation. "But you aren't surprised."
It wasn't a question and they both knew it.
"Not at all. With the way these three have been progressing, I am not surprised at all to find out that they are already learning such advanced fighting styles. They are the resident taijutsu specialists in the Academy, aren't they?"
Once again, the chunin nodded. "They've beaten almost everybody their own age. Ever since the Uchiha scandal, Sasuke hasn't been himself. So Kiba's only real competition now are his friends."
The Hokage leaned back as he muttered, "And how goes Sasuke's own progress?"
"It's slow... But at least he's talking to Hinata again."
"That's good... I cannot imagine how hard it must be for him to have lost his father in the Uchiha uprising. But the clan is rebuilding and, even though it will be a slow going process, I am sure that he will eventually recover from his father's actions."
Iruka frowned but couldn't help but agree with the older man. The Uchiha scandal had hit Konoha hard, but at least they had the right tools to try and rebuild and regain Konoha's trust. It was a long road ahead of them, but with Mikoto's strong leadership, Iruka strongly believed that they would eventually recover.
"Well... There is no way to get around it- these three will have to be a genin team."
"Are you sure, Lord Third? Isn't it too early to be deciding such a thing?" Iruka questioned, then frowned, "And wouldn't it be for the best for them to be spread around rather than to be grouped up on the same team? With their current knowledge, they are almost a whole year ahead of the rest of their classmates. It would only make sense for them to be placed in different teams."
"On a normal occasion, it would." The Hokage relented, but explained, "But young Kiba has already chosen his pack. Normally, Inuzuka are put on a genin team that become their pack. But Kiba has chosen to go against tradition and has already created a pack. If we were to separate them once they graduate, it would just cause headaches all around. No, even though it would be good to separate them because of how much they know, it would just cause trouble. Kiba wouldn't interact well with others if he was separated from his pack."
"I see..." Iruka nodded, then asked, "Well... At least we've got a genin team already decided with a couple of years to spare."
The Hokage nodded but the pensive frown remained on his lips.
"These children... They are not being taught by their parents. Neither the Akimichi nor the Inuzuka teach such skills to children so young. And the Haruno family is civilian and completely unknowledgeable of this kind of topic. Where are these kids getting so much instruction?"
"They told me that they are learning from books they find."
"I am sure that you did not believe them?"
"Of course not. No child can learn that well from a book. These kids have raw talent, of course, but this is almost unnatural..." Iruka breathed out. "They are learning from someone and they don't want anyone to know who that is."
"Truly, a rather intriguing mystery..."
Iruka agreed wholeheartedly.
Just who was teaching these three so much that they were leagues beyond their classmates?
After weeks of practice, they were able to actually finish Kuzu's fighting sequence without messing up. And, from the way that the Old Man nodded without barking at them to start from the beginning, Chouji could tell that they had finally done it right.
"It is suffice to say that you three did not trip over your own feet this time around."
That was a compliment and they all knew it. So Sakura didn't waste a single second in beginning to cheer, which Chouji followed up almost naturally. Kiba smirked over at the Old Man and nodded with pride.
They had finally done it!
"Now, why don't you show me that sequence the weak teacher wanted you to learn?"
"But we already know it's stupid!" Kiba immediately argued, which made Kuzu roll his eyes and glare at him without saying a single thing.
With a loud groan, Kiba moved his body so he stood in the beginning stance of the sequence Iruka Sensei had asked them to learn. Sakura and he followed shortly after, and they went through the motions without a single hiccup.
This sequence was easier to learn and repeat. But it was much faster and focused on agility rather than raw strength. Chouji felt weird doing it, but he didn't mind it too much. Although he did prefer Kuzu's much more.
Once they were finished, Kuzu scoffed in disdain and shook his head. "If you were to continue this teacher's train of thought, you'd never get anywhere in your training. No, I'll teach you something important today so that you don't fall too far behind on the schedule you're supposed to be on." He clicked his tongue for a moment, then called, "Pork Chop, what have you learn about medical ninjutsu?"
"The basics." Chouji smiled proudly as he recounted what he had learned from Daichi. "I can now heal small scrapes and cuts! And I'm supposed to be learning how to mend obstructed chakra pathways in a month or so."
"Hnn... Fine."
Kuzu always seemed annoyed whenever he was teaching them stuff. Chouji wasn't completely sure why, but he was following a schedule that they had never even seen. He hated whenever they weren't able to follow it and he was annoyed whenever someone else tried to teach them something he considered futile or outright useless.
"We'll be going on a small expedition today. It's nowhere too fascinating, just a clearing I found with soft ground for you three to start learning chakra natures."
Chouji wasn't completely sure why they needed to travel to learn even more about something the Old Man had told them about countless times, but he didn't argue. He just followed Kuzu and his friends outside of the Village yet again.
After a brief break for lunch, Kuzu took them to a rather rocky area just outside of the Village's walls. There he showed them how he was able to make a giant wall sprout up from the ground without even breaking a sweat.
She would have been lying if she tried to say she wasn't amazed by seeing such a thing.
After he explained to them just how it was that he was able to complete such a feat- "Force your chakra into the ground and make it do what you want it to do. This soil is soft so it should be easier to manipulate."- he stood off to the side and watched them struggle to create even the tiniest of mounds.
Sakura managed to make the biggest mound, even though it wasn't any taller than her ankle's height, but it collapsed on her in only a handful of seconds. Chouji's inch high mound actually remained standing sturdy, though, so that was something... Kiba's mound was a bit taller than Chouji's, but shorter than her's, and it collapsed on him before his hand had even left the ground.
They were all left frustrated and annoyed that they couldn't make anything even nearly as impressive as Kuzu's own huge wall.
"Concentration. You three aren't concentrating enough. Kiba, more patience. Sakura, more chakra control. Chouji, more chakra." Kuzu barked at them, "Try again!"
So they continued training throughout the day, simply practicing in making a solid mound of raised ground with Kuzu shouting corrections and critiques at them every time they failed to astonish him.
By the time they had finished, Sakura's unimpressive mound was stable, but Chouji's was solid and was able to stay standing even after Kuzu kicked at it. Her's was not able to stand up to the challenge. And Kiba's own mound fell beneath the man's weight; he hadn't even needed to kick it to make it fall.
"Tomorrow you'll be starting on tree walking." Kuzu grunted as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Sakura was panting softly as sweat trickled down her face. Her whole body felt as if it weighed a ton and, from the way Chouji's shoulders were drooping and Kiba wasn't arguing with Kuzu, she could tell that both her friends were just as exhausted.
"Chakra control is necessary to utilizing elemental ninjutsu. So tomorrow you're going to learn how to walk on trees with chakra and then you'll come back here and show me if you've improved at all."
Kuzu's teaching style was harsh and he barely ever allowed them time to rest.
Sakura felt like she was being treated like an actual ninja, rather than just a child.
"Now, come on. You kids promised me dinner."
She was too tired to smile at that.
Eating was nearly impossible with the way his limbs wanted to collapse on him. So, instead of eating, Kiba just closed his eyes and rested against the old man's side as he ate.
"Get off of me."
The man was ignored.
"Not you too, Pinkie."
Kiba cracked one eye open to see Sakura leaning on the other man's side, her own eyes closed as well. And, finally, when the Old Man was about to huff at both of them to leave, Chouji rested his back against Kuzu's own.
"Let us sleep, old man..." Kiba grumbled at him, only to earn a heated glare.
He didn't care though. He was too tired to grouch at the Old Man about how much of a slave driver he was. So he closed his eyes, yawned, and made him a bit more comfortable against the old man's side.
He actually managed to fall asleep.
With three annoying pests sleeping against him, Kakuzu couldn't help but wonder just how this had become his life and why he had not killed them on the very day they had asked him for a war story.
The only good thing about them all having fallen asleep on him was that he could eat without having to worry about them looking at his face and screaming about monsters and ugly creatures. And he couldn't complain over the silence that appeared when they were actually sleeping. On a normal day, they would be asking him for more stories while he ate.
... Maybe then having fallen asleep wasn't the worst thing that could have happened to him.
Still, once he had finished eating and he put his mask back in place, he was left with a rather large dilemma: he had three sleeping children resting on him and he couldn't leave them out in the middle of the Forest of Death.
For a couple of seconds, he wondered if it truly would be a bad idea to leave them here. And he received his answer in different scenarios conjured by his imagination where they were eaten, stung, poisoned, or faced a combination of all three by the dangerous animals that lived within this death trap.
No, he could not leave them here. But he also couldn't take them back to his current quarters- they would never meet Hidan.
The only options he was left with were two: either he stayed with them until they woke up or he risked dropping them all off in their homes.
He wasn't keen on staying in this death trap for too long, so it wasn't hard to choose between those two.
With a heavy sigh, Kakuzu gathered up all three children, packed up the food they hadn't touched, and began to travel under the cover of night into Konoha.
On his way there, he decided that his safest bet was to leave them all in one house. He wasn't about to make three different trips, so he would save time by just leaving them in the same place. And he chose to leave them in the girl's home, seeing how the boys both lived inside of Clan Compounds and that would be too much hard work.
Sneaking into the Haruno home wasn't too difficult. They didn't have any traps set up in the upper level of the house, so he was able to sneak into the girl's room without any difficulty.
Once inside, he placed the girl on the bed.
After he did that, he frowned.
He couldn't leave the boys on the floor... Right? No, it was too cold.
What was he thinking, of course he could do that. They were just brats!
Frowning at his own thoughts, Kakuzu grabbed the covers on the girl's bed and threw them on the floor. Then he put both boys on top of the covers and snuck into the lower levels of the house to leave the food inside of the refrigerator.
Neither of her parents were home.
Konoha idiots... Did they not even worry where their daughter was at this hour? It wasn't too late- just seven pm- but she wasn't even a genin yet! Konoha seriously had a parenting problem.
When he returned to the girl's bedroom, he found the three children still slumbering peacefully where he had left them. The Inuzuka had managed to throw all of his limbs out and taken up most of the sheets' space, all the while the Akimichi had curled into a small ball on his right side. The civilian had somehow found one of her plush toys and hugged it in her sleep, a small smile now on her face.
(If he was a weaker man, Kakuzu would dare call these mongrels cute. But seeing how he wasn't a weaker man, he merely scoffed at them and looked for a pen and paper to leave them a reminder of their schedule for the following day.)
..~..~..
Hope you all liked this chapter! Please review and tell me what you thought!
