The Dogs of War: Team Eight
Chapter Nine: Fight For Freedom From Falsehoods
The dead leafs hidden under the fog crackled under Kurenai's sandals. When she halted, her cupped hand sweeped across her body and paired the mist in front of her revealing a spider caught in midair. Her eyes surveyed for any branches the web may be attracted to, but they were far away. She walked over to the spider and bent down to see a glimmering of a trip wire. Her pace had been slow to find these traps. "I am not close to her." Kurenai said. "This trip wire has been here for a while, yet she has not returned from her stronghold to clean or inspect this trap."
This was not information that had been given to her, but with her cautious approach, she was able to be ready for anything on this mission. Pulling out a string with a small gem on the end, she threw it ahead of her and started to pull it towards her. After a while, the gem started to pull up. "Multiple set ups."
Kiba and Akamaru looked out the window to see the red rooftops and mass of interconnecting wires. Hinata sat queitly at the door of Shino's hospital room where he sat at he edge of his bed in the hospital clothes. "We are having our next mission today." The Sage told them. "Arrive at the forest of death at noon."
"But, we wouldn't have enough time," Kiba argued.
"You better leave now so you are only mildly late then." The Sage said. Hinata bolted through the door and Kiba and Akamaru jumped out the window. "I will see you there, Shino."
Shino finally removed his arm from the sling and rotated his shoulder before putting his hand through his coat sleeve. When raising his head, he saw a teenage boy with black long sprouting weedlike hair, a grey scarf wrapping around the lower half of his face and down to his neck, and a pair of glasses like Shino. "Are you doing well, little brother?"
Around his waist, a clay jug hung from his belt and he held one hand against it bouncing it against his hip. His feet were shoulder lenght apart and at the top of his left tigh, he had tied his hidden leaf forehead protector. "Shall I introduce eachother? Your name is Aburame Shino. I am your older brother, Aburame Shiro, at your service for your big-fat information." He cheerfully announced. His hair had less lift than Shino's and consisted of many strands rather than collecting in one clumb. "I've heard it was like being born again, to lose all of your personal memories. If this is true, then I'll wish you well in your new life."
"Why is, ah, your voice so colourful, aniue?" Shino unsharply asked.
"That old fossil was here to meet you, I see. Only the heir to the clan is like old stick in the mud," Shiro pointed at his little brother, "or that old fossil."
As if he knew the question before Shino, he provided him with more answers. "I was like you before you were born. Not exactly, I was a chuunin before you became a genin. However, the heir of the Aburame clan is unconventionally the youngest child, you gotta know. This is to my understanding that the youngest gets the benefit of the older generation; it would be a a failure in progress if the youngest were weaker than the people who raised him." He started to whistle a few bars of Bach's Bouree and Shino shuttered as the bugs inside him leap around his body. "That old fossil doesn't like it when you whistle, but you're better than that, isn't that so?"
"It would be against Filial Piety." Shino stated.
"You'll figure it out someday, really," Shiro laughed, "old stick in the mud."
"Why do you keep calling me that, aniue?" Shino asked.
"Every child of our clan gets a nickname like that from the previously born or mother. I was given the name old windbag." Shiro laughed again and removed a tear from his eye with his left hand. A red tatoo of two stripes meeting in the middle of his palm to have one curve in itself strenched up and down his whole hand from the top of his middle finger to the bottom of his palm. "I'd talked too much, which for our clan's heir would be a person of normal social skills, and the name stayed. I suppose that is why you were born. But the reason to add old before the name's to show that we most respect people younger than us, though many would disagree. I say screw them. Only those who serve others are truly fulfilled."
The tall wire gate to enter the Forest of Death entwined with chains secured with locks combined with ninja seals and a rusty white sign printed with bold red letters. "Forbidden Area." Hinata fluttered. To the left of team eight, a neck length dark haired woman wearing a pale trench coat, a short pair of orange shorts appeared on the roof of a wooden stand. From the top of her knees to the height of her neck, fishnet clothing lay underneath revealing her curves. Streamers shot from her and confetti collected around a metal shin guard that she placed on the peak of the roof.
"Woah!" Kiba concluded.
"I'm the undefendable Anko!" She announced and jumped off the roof performing somersaults to land in front of them. She rose and threw her fist into the air and madly grinned with closed eyes of intensity. "Ahaaay!"
"Still got that hickey?" The sage said. Anko frowned and even the hair she tied high up behind her head that sprouted over head like a crown lost its spike. She marched over to him and grapped onto his coat to truly trounce him. She stopped to burn him with her light brown eyes. His hand harnessed her hair hanging over her headprotector and brushed it off to the side. "Hmm, I am ever glad to wot that you are still a hidden leaf ninja. Care to instruct my students?"
She cleared her throat and put her hands in her coat pocket. "Listen clearly, young hoodlums! Your geezer teacher has a map of the areas where you will be disarming the traps that were left from the last chuunin exam by members of our village. There will also be teams like you from other villages working to disarm their traps so that their secrets will not be stolen. Refrain from engaging with the other teams. When you are in the forest of death, you will be under a genjutsu, so you will not remember any of the environment before you take the exam." Anko swung out her hand and tagged Shino, Hinata, Akaramu, Kiba and the sage. "Like everyone who enters the arena, you will not remember anything, so there is no need to fight."
"Has the special team arrived?" The sage asked.
"Yes," she put a hand behind her hand and chuckled charmingly, "but no group is going to disarm those tricky traps."
"We can do it!" Kiba yelled and Akaramu barked in agreement. He pointed at himself with a thumb. "Nothing is too hard for us!"
"I'm afraid you missed your mouth, baby," Anko taunted biting on her thumb and talking softly with a slur, "I'm a big boy, nutwing is too hard fort me."
"Enough with you bibby." Kiba retorted.
"That is sick shit on a stick wit." Anko stated.
"Huh?" Kiba raised an eyebrow.
"She means you are trying to carry an intelligent comment, or sick shit, on an inefficient sense of humour." The sage explained.
"Huh?"
"You don't understand," she said, "there are some ninjas that are levels above everyone else in setting traps. Given enough creativity, a genin can arrange traps that can stump the strongest of ninjas and create a permanent dead zone that only a true genius can solve. It is not enough to set these traps off because they have a device that resets the trap. Genjutsus are the suspected trick and will be triggered by more than one sense. And every time, the hokage picks a group of genins to investigate these traps."
"Don't the organizators of the exams keep record of the traps that are set and triggered each round?" Hinata rubbed her fingers together. "The ninjas who had set the trap should be able to disarm them."
Anko messed up Hinata's hair. "Right, kiddo. But ninjas also should be able to remember their names."
"Father, is one of the dead zones created by you?" Shino inquired.
"Correct." The sage replied. "Apparently, the records suggested that milestone."
Akamaru barked. "Akarmaru wants to know who set the other traps."
"Kakashi was separated from his team and helped a team from the hidden village of Mist," Anko recited, "and Uchiha Itachi his own mark left in this place. Though they rest in the forest of death, they are too deadly for any genin."
"You have heard the rules." The sage said. "Let us depart. Thanks Anko."
"You're welcome," she held her breath, "I'll tell your name one day."
"The first trap is ahead." The sage said. "Enclose the area. Shino, proceed first."
Team Eight hid behind four trees to surround a clearing. A rope hung from a tree and coiled into a noose that lied on the ground with a few leafs covering it. "That's what we have to disarm?" Kiba shouted. A brown bunny hopped out of the bushes near the tree. It triggered the noose and shot up to the tree to hang by its feet.
"How careless," Hinata rushed out of the bushes to help the bunny.
"No, Hinata." Shino intercepted and tackled her to the ground. He looked up and saw Kiba and his father with kunais in their heads. Turning Hinata over, Shino stabbed a kunai into her chest. Blood gushed out and painted his overcoat. He walked up to the hanging bunny, and slaughtered on the hook. Smoke consumed it and when that cleared, it was a bag of sand with a seal upon it.
"Good work, Shino," Kiba and Akaramu dropped to his side, "you disarmed the first trap. How did you figure it was a genjutsu trap?"
"I had to prevent Hinata from heading blind into the field to save the bunny." A brown mannequin rested where Shino had stabbed Hinata. "The illusion played out well up to that point, but in reality, you would have been more sensitive to the bunny falling into the trap and I should have stopped you."
"Lame reasoning," Kiba stated, "but it turned out good anyhow."
"Heading to the next trap, stick close to me." The sage said standing out of the bush. "We will have to travel between the trap that Kakashi set up and a trap from the hidden sand village."
They dispersed from the trap and met up with team ten being heading by Shikamaru's father, Nara Shikato. Shikato rolled his shoulders and tilted his head to the sage. "Hiya," he said in a laid back fashion adjusting his ripped up vest spotted with dark brown stains, "formalities seem so useless here since we ain't going to remember this."
"As far as that is concerned," the sage backhanded Shikato across his scarred face. Shikamaru chuckled mischievously, but Choji paused his intake of chips at the most. The loud crunching of the chips halted to give rise to a verse of a song bird.
The final member of team ten, Ino, watched wantonly waiting with crossed arms for a reaction. On the sage's team, Shino stood so deadpan as ever, Hinata humbly hid behind Kiba who had piercing stares at the situation.
"I truly thought that you weren't a violent man," Shikato cooly commented.
"You are still responsible for the safety of your squad. Do not wander from the rites. As for your new outlook of me, it will pass." The sage stated. Kiba bursted into laughter. The sage then threw his elbow back into his son who crumbled into bugs. "We are both missing a student."
"I am aware of that," Shikato replied and swatted Shikamaru's shoulder. He stood rubbing his shoulders.
"He was talking about Ino." Shikamaru bluntly pointed out to his father.
"Don't you trust that I know that?" He asked. "I want you to go find him."
Akaramu leaped off Kiba's head and sniffed at a line of bugs. He lifted his head and barked. "Yahoo! He's got the scent."
"That would be useless," Shikamaru started, "since Shino smells like his bugs, as he told me on our first mission, he can throw off his scent in many directions without making the smell weak or old. The best course of action is inaction. Ino knows where the major traps are so they should be able to avoid trouble. Ino has actually been out of our group for a while now. Shino would be also, but I don't know how she wasn't able to stop the rest of you."
"Stop us from what?" Hinata asked.
"Stop you from entering the trap," Shikamaru said.
"We're in the trap!" Shikato cursed. "When did this happen?"
"Any of the senses can fall under the illusion of a genjutsu." Shikamaru explained. "We were saved from trap from Choji's loud chewing."
Choji stopped again and they could hear the bird again. Kiba waved his hands in front of himself. "Wait," he said, "it's just a bird."
"Don't you find it odd that a song bird would inhabit the forest of death?" Shikamaru asked. "Ino doesn't know she had avoided the trap and helped Shino as well. Ahh, I'm going to forgive and forget this. How troublesome."
"What should we do?" Choji asked.
"Kill the bird."
"Do I know you?" Shino asked the long haired blonde girl in a purple tank top sporting two long white bands over her foreheands. The collar hung loose and folded around her neck. "I am," and he checked with his name tag on his jacket, "named Aburame Shino, and no matter the strenght of the opponent, I will not underestimate the moment."
"Chill, Shino." Ino held her forehead protector that she wrapped around her waist. "We're from the same village. You left a memory of me with your teammate."
"Hinata?" Shino asked.
"I had hoped how Hinata had four bugs in her eyes, one of them would be a memory about the promise you made me." She took his hand and placed a bug into his palm. "You had a memory stored from each of the members of your team, and a strange one about you explaining to Hinata that you could place a bug in Kiba to suck away his added chakra. This memory was instructions, I had figured out, for that bug you put in Kiba. I just had to make him blow his nose a few times, and the bug was there."
The small bug burrowed into his palm. "Thank you, Ino." Shino relived the promise he had made to her. "An Aburame may or may not be known for their forgetfulness, but a promise is what we cannot break."
"I feel special that you included me in the thoughts you held important." Ino softly swayed side to side. "You so sounded half-hearted when you made me a promise to take me to your garden but you did care." She wrapped her arms around him and peaked him on the lips. She pushed him back to show him her smile. It was a flash of a smile that died away to a frown. "Ah, that was.."
"Spontaneous," he filled in for her.
"Yeah, and tragic too." She told him. "I'm going to die never remembering my true first kiss."
"Would you wish to die before this mission is over and remember this kiss?" Shino asked. "Lao Tzu left us with this freedom: 'Health or possession: which has more worth?' I cherish my comrade's health, so I will surrender any memory for their preservation. Let us return."
A kunai pierced the red chest of the bird and it crashed into the green moth infested tree with a final note. "Good shot, Choji." Kiba said and patted Choji on his shoulders. "Can't agrue with results."
Shikamaru sighed heavily but dropped further down when he heard the sound of a bird singing. "How troublesome." He muttered.
"Hey, what the hell do you mean?" Shikato rusty voice treatened. "'Kill the bird.' You said."
"How about this bird?" Kiba gave Shikamaru the finger. Akaramu barked. "He tells you, 'right here, buddy.'"
Shikamaru's posture slacked off and he gave them a sluggish stare. "We must have not been in the trap at all."
"What?!" Shikato shouted.
"The bird song was to lure people into the trap." He said.
Hinata winced as the Sage appeared before her and she saw a long pointed rock pretrude out of his back. All around the genins, four figures fell that looked like the Sage then bursting into bugs and the true one turned around to look at the group. "Stay close together, subordinates. We, journins, will take care of the projectiles." The sage peacefully and nodded to Shikato. "Be hesitant to move and don't be alarmed if you are pierced in a uncritical area."
Shikato appeared before Kiba and hit off a rock spear with a kunai. "I haven't checked the list of fatal areas in a while." He admited. "Has that area, you know, been called fatal yet?"
"What you blocked is not considered fatal in this situation," the Sage stated.
"Keep a kunai low, boys," Shikato warned them.
Shino and Ino arrived at the area where team ten had set off to enter the trap. "Where are they?"
"I don't know," Ino responded, "they should be here."
"I would be best if we waited here," Shino stated. "We shouldn't cause them any more problems."
Ino perked her ears to the song of a bird. "Lonely, isn't it?"
"Huh?" Shino wondered. "To what are you refering?"
"The bird that is singing." Ino answered. Shino lost his balance and sat down on a patch of sand covered ground. Ino offered her hand. "What happened?"
"I think we have entered the trap your team was suppose to investigate." Shino announced.
"No way," Ino said, "I have the map showing where the traps are."
"Then, the bird call was a lure for them to enter the trap," Shino said crossing his legs in a full lotus, "they would have stayed in this position once they have found out that our replacements were fakes. We must assume that we are not in the trap. The question is: how do we communicate with them?"
Ino paced up and down along the tree line humming a tune and Shino sat silently with his hands on his knees. "Eureka!" Ino snapped her fingers. "I got it."
Shino snapped up and put his hands in his pockets. "I believe you in."
Shikamaru squated against the back of Choji who snacked on a piece of cake on a plate. His weary weak arms drooped over his knees and he connected them by their fingertips. "Our leaders are protecting us," he glaced over his father knocking another incoming spear of rock out of the way, "but the trap is too fast for us, genins, to move."
Arms wrapped around Kiba from behind, and a rock was stopped before piercing him through his shoulder. Shikamaru turned his head with a crackle in his neck and saw Hinata with her arms around Kiba holding the rock. "Hinata," Shikamaru droned, "can you see through this illusion?"
"Aye," she gently gesture with a nod and played with her hair mixing blood from her hands in it.
"Search for any hints of seals hidden on the outside of this trap." He told her. Her vision spread out and she took note of seven seals surrounding the trap tighted high up in the trees. "If Ino has discovered the plan to free us, we would use that information."
"I see them." Hinata said and then jolted her head back. "Shino!"
Shino appeared in the cluster of the other genins and was panting hard. Half way to standing up, Kiba tried to hold Shino from behind and wrap his arms under his arms and around his chest. This help was stopped when Shino punched Kiba in the face and then got up the rest of the way. His hands rested on his shoulders then brushed down to the bottom of his coat. "Oh, maybe I shouldn't had been offended. Duh! How stupid of me!"
"Ino?" Choji paused his crunching on his chips.
"No worries." Shinos told Choji. "We're both fine."
The lacky hands of Shikamaru came together to produce various sounding claps. "Too bad we weren't remember this."
"Shit," Shino cursed. Kiba rubbed some blood from his nose and sniffed Shino. Akamaru joined and kept his distance to his allegric teammate to finally release a bark.
"You're right," Kiba stated, "when has he ever swore? Very out of character."
"Idiots," Shikaramu remarked. "Hinata will have some information for you about the locations of the seals around this trap."
He nodded.
Ino took a step back before racing up the tree with a kunai in her hand. She drew closer to the tree truck and slashed the final note. She slipped and fell but Hinata caught her. Around her, stood the two teams and their temporary leaders. "Well done Ino."
"What the hell did Ino do?" Kiba shouted.
"She entered Shino's body to come get information to us and still remain outside the trap if help could only matter out there." Shikamaru explained.
Shikato turned to face the other team's leader. "Well, no need to waste words here. So long."
With that, team ten was gone. The sage removed his glasses, and rubbed them. Turning them slightly to reflect what was behind his shoulder, he saw a figure bolt from a high branch. "We must be getting on as well."
-------- End of Chapter Nine ------------
Next Chapter: More traps to disarm for team eight, and they may run into Team Ten again. Kurenai is even closer to the S-class criminal she is after.
Notes: Yeah, this has taken me a long time to complete, but with Shikamaru, some brain teasing scheme has to come up for him to solve, or Ino, I guess some cleverness rubbed off on her.
Strange that no one is going to remember anything that happens in this chapter. Almost allows me to do anything. hehe
Predictions: Almost anything
Chapter Nine: Fight For Freedom From Falsehoods
The dead leafs hidden under the fog crackled under Kurenai's sandals. When she halted, her cupped hand sweeped across her body and paired the mist in front of her revealing a spider caught in midair. Her eyes surveyed for any branches the web may be attracted to, but they were far away. She walked over to the spider and bent down to see a glimmering of a trip wire. Her pace had been slow to find these traps. "I am not close to her." Kurenai said. "This trip wire has been here for a while, yet she has not returned from her stronghold to clean or inspect this trap."
This was not information that had been given to her, but with her cautious approach, she was able to be ready for anything on this mission. Pulling out a string with a small gem on the end, she threw it ahead of her and started to pull it towards her. After a while, the gem started to pull up. "Multiple set ups."
Kiba and Akamaru looked out the window to see the red rooftops and mass of interconnecting wires. Hinata sat queitly at the door of Shino's hospital room where he sat at he edge of his bed in the hospital clothes. "We are having our next mission today." The Sage told them. "Arrive at the forest of death at noon."
"But, we wouldn't have enough time," Kiba argued.
"You better leave now so you are only mildly late then." The Sage said. Hinata bolted through the door and Kiba and Akamaru jumped out the window. "I will see you there, Shino."
Shino finally removed his arm from the sling and rotated his shoulder before putting his hand through his coat sleeve. When raising his head, he saw a teenage boy with black long sprouting weedlike hair, a grey scarf wrapping around the lower half of his face and down to his neck, and a pair of glasses like Shino. "Are you doing well, little brother?"
Around his waist, a clay jug hung from his belt and he held one hand against it bouncing it against his hip. His feet were shoulder lenght apart and at the top of his left tigh, he had tied his hidden leaf forehead protector. "Shall I introduce eachother? Your name is Aburame Shino. I am your older brother, Aburame Shiro, at your service for your big-fat information." He cheerfully announced. His hair had less lift than Shino's and consisted of many strands rather than collecting in one clumb. "I've heard it was like being born again, to lose all of your personal memories. If this is true, then I'll wish you well in your new life."
"Why is, ah, your voice so colourful, aniue?" Shino unsharply asked.
"That old fossil was here to meet you, I see. Only the heir to the clan is like old stick in the mud," Shiro pointed at his little brother, "or that old fossil."
As if he knew the question before Shino, he provided him with more answers. "I was like you before you were born. Not exactly, I was a chuunin before you became a genin. However, the heir of the Aburame clan is unconventionally the youngest child, you gotta know. This is to my understanding that the youngest gets the benefit of the older generation; it would be a a failure in progress if the youngest were weaker than the people who raised him." He started to whistle a few bars of Bach's Bouree and Shino shuttered as the bugs inside him leap around his body. "That old fossil doesn't like it when you whistle, but you're better than that, isn't that so?"
"It would be against Filial Piety." Shino stated.
"You'll figure it out someday, really," Shiro laughed, "old stick in the mud."
"Why do you keep calling me that, aniue?" Shino asked.
"Every child of our clan gets a nickname like that from the previously born or mother. I was given the name old windbag." Shiro laughed again and removed a tear from his eye with his left hand. A red tatoo of two stripes meeting in the middle of his palm to have one curve in itself strenched up and down his whole hand from the top of his middle finger to the bottom of his palm. "I'd talked too much, which for our clan's heir would be a person of normal social skills, and the name stayed. I suppose that is why you were born. But the reason to add old before the name's to show that we most respect people younger than us, though many would disagree. I say screw them. Only those who serve others are truly fulfilled."
The tall wire gate to enter the Forest of Death entwined with chains secured with locks combined with ninja seals and a rusty white sign printed with bold red letters. "Forbidden Area." Hinata fluttered. To the left of team eight, a neck length dark haired woman wearing a pale trench coat, a short pair of orange shorts appeared on the roof of a wooden stand. From the top of her knees to the height of her neck, fishnet clothing lay underneath revealing her curves. Streamers shot from her and confetti collected around a metal shin guard that she placed on the peak of the roof.
"Woah!" Kiba concluded.
"I'm the undefendable Anko!" She announced and jumped off the roof performing somersaults to land in front of them. She rose and threw her fist into the air and madly grinned with closed eyes of intensity. "Ahaaay!"
"Still got that hickey?" The sage said. Anko frowned and even the hair she tied high up behind her head that sprouted over head like a crown lost its spike. She marched over to him and grapped onto his coat to truly trounce him. She stopped to burn him with her light brown eyes. His hand harnessed her hair hanging over her headprotector and brushed it off to the side. "Hmm, I am ever glad to wot that you are still a hidden leaf ninja. Care to instruct my students?"
She cleared her throat and put her hands in her coat pocket. "Listen clearly, young hoodlums! Your geezer teacher has a map of the areas where you will be disarming the traps that were left from the last chuunin exam by members of our village. There will also be teams like you from other villages working to disarm their traps so that their secrets will not be stolen. Refrain from engaging with the other teams. When you are in the forest of death, you will be under a genjutsu, so you will not remember any of the environment before you take the exam." Anko swung out her hand and tagged Shino, Hinata, Akaramu, Kiba and the sage. "Like everyone who enters the arena, you will not remember anything, so there is no need to fight."
"Has the special team arrived?" The sage asked.
"Yes," she put a hand behind her hand and chuckled charmingly, "but no group is going to disarm those tricky traps."
"We can do it!" Kiba yelled and Akaramu barked in agreement. He pointed at himself with a thumb. "Nothing is too hard for us!"
"I'm afraid you missed your mouth, baby," Anko taunted biting on her thumb and talking softly with a slur, "I'm a big boy, nutwing is too hard fort me."
"Enough with you bibby." Kiba retorted.
"That is sick shit on a stick wit." Anko stated.
"Huh?" Kiba raised an eyebrow.
"She means you are trying to carry an intelligent comment, or sick shit, on an inefficient sense of humour." The sage explained.
"Huh?"
"You don't understand," she said, "there are some ninjas that are levels above everyone else in setting traps. Given enough creativity, a genin can arrange traps that can stump the strongest of ninjas and create a permanent dead zone that only a true genius can solve. It is not enough to set these traps off because they have a device that resets the trap. Genjutsus are the suspected trick and will be triggered by more than one sense. And every time, the hokage picks a group of genins to investigate these traps."
"Don't the organizators of the exams keep record of the traps that are set and triggered each round?" Hinata rubbed her fingers together. "The ninjas who had set the trap should be able to disarm them."
Anko messed up Hinata's hair. "Right, kiddo. But ninjas also should be able to remember their names."
"Father, is one of the dead zones created by you?" Shino inquired.
"Correct." The sage replied. "Apparently, the records suggested that milestone."
Akamaru barked. "Akarmaru wants to know who set the other traps."
"Kakashi was separated from his team and helped a team from the hidden village of Mist," Anko recited, "and Uchiha Itachi his own mark left in this place. Though they rest in the forest of death, they are too deadly for any genin."
"You have heard the rules." The sage said. "Let us depart. Thanks Anko."
"You're welcome," she held her breath, "I'll tell your name one day."
"The first trap is ahead." The sage said. "Enclose the area. Shino, proceed first."
Team Eight hid behind four trees to surround a clearing. A rope hung from a tree and coiled into a noose that lied on the ground with a few leafs covering it. "That's what we have to disarm?" Kiba shouted. A brown bunny hopped out of the bushes near the tree. It triggered the noose and shot up to the tree to hang by its feet.
"How careless," Hinata rushed out of the bushes to help the bunny.
"No, Hinata." Shino intercepted and tackled her to the ground. He looked up and saw Kiba and his father with kunais in their heads. Turning Hinata over, Shino stabbed a kunai into her chest. Blood gushed out and painted his overcoat. He walked up to the hanging bunny, and slaughtered on the hook. Smoke consumed it and when that cleared, it was a bag of sand with a seal upon it.
"Good work, Shino," Kiba and Akaramu dropped to his side, "you disarmed the first trap. How did you figure it was a genjutsu trap?"
"I had to prevent Hinata from heading blind into the field to save the bunny." A brown mannequin rested where Shino had stabbed Hinata. "The illusion played out well up to that point, but in reality, you would have been more sensitive to the bunny falling into the trap and I should have stopped you."
"Lame reasoning," Kiba stated, "but it turned out good anyhow."
"Heading to the next trap, stick close to me." The sage said standing out of the bush. "We will have to travel between the trap that Kakashi set up and a trap from the hidden sand village."
They dispersed from the trap and met up with team ten being heading by Shikamaru's father, Nara Shikato. Shikato rolled his shoulders and tilted his head to the sage. "Hiya," he said in a laid back fashion adjusting his ripped up vest spotted with dark brown stains, "formalities seem so useless here since we ain't going to remember this."
"As far as that is concerned," the sage backhanded Shikato across his scarred face. Shikamaru chuckled mischievously, but Choji paused his intake of chips at the most. The loud crunching of the chips halted to give rise to a verse of a song bird.
The final member of team ten, Ino, watched wantonly waiting with crossed arms for a reaction. On the sage's team, Shino stood so deadpan as ever, Hinata humbly hid behind Kiba who had piercing stares at the situation.
"I truly thought that you weren't a violent man," Shikato cooly commented.
"You are still responsible for the safety of your squad. Do not wander from the rites. As for your new outlook of me, it will pass." The sage stated. Kiba bursted into laughter. The sage then threw his elbow back into his son who crumbled into bugs. "We are both missing a student."
"I am aware of that," Shikato replied and swatted Shikamaru's shoulder. He stood rubbing his shoulders.
"He was talking about Ino." Shikamaru bluntly pointed out to his father.
"Don't you trust that I know that?" He asked. "I want you to go find him."
Akaramu leaped off Kiba's head and sniffed at a line of bugs. He lifted his head and barked. "Yahoo! He's got the scent."
"That would be useless," Shikamaru started, "since Shino smells like his bugs, as he told me on our first mission, he can throw off his scent in many directions without making the smell weak or old. The best course of action is inaction. Ino knows where the major traps are so they should be able to avoid trouble. Ino has actually been out of our group for a while now. Shino would be also, but I don't know how she wasn't able to stop the rest of you."
"Stop us from what?" Hinata asked.
"Stop you from entering the trap," Shikamaru said.
"We're in the trap!" Shikato cursed. "When did this happen?"
"Any of the senses can fall under the illusion of a genjutsu." Shikamaru explained. "We were saved from trap from Choji's loud chewing."
Choji stopped again and they could hear the bird again. Kiba waved his hands in front of himself. "Wait," he said, "it's just a bird."
"Don't you find it odd that a song bird would inhabit the forest of death?" Shikamaru asked. "Ino doesn't know she had avoided the trap and helped Shino as well. Ahh, I'm going to forgive and forget this. How troublesome."
"What should we do?" Choji asked.
"Kill the bird."
"Do I know you?" Shino asked the long haired blonde girl in a purple tank top sporting two long white bands over her foreheands. The collar hung loose and folded around her neck. "I am," and he checked with his name tag on his jacket, "named Aburame Shino, and no matter the strenght of the opponent, I will not underestimate the moment."
"Chill, Shino." Ino held her forehead protector that she wrapped around her waist. "We're from the same village. You left a memory of me with your teammate."
"Hinata?" Shino asked.
"I had hoped how Hinata had four bugs in her eyes, one of them would be a memory about the promise you made me." She took his hand and placed a bug into his palm. "You had a memory stored from each of the members of your team, and a strange one about you explaining to Hinata that you could place a bug in Kiba to suck away his added chakra. This memory was instructions, I had figured out, for that bug you put in Kiba. I just had to make him blow his nose a few times, and the bug was there."
The small bug burrowed into his palm. "Thank you, Ino." Shino relived the promise he had made to her. "An Aburame may or may not be known for their forgetfulness, but a promise is what we cannot break."
"I feel special that you included me in the thoughts you held important." Ino softly swayed side to side. "You so sounded half-hearted when you made me a promise to take me to your garden but you did care." She wrapped her arms around him and peaked him on the lips. She pushed him back to show him her smile. It was a flash of a smile that died away to a frown. "Ah, that was.."
"Spontaneous," he filled in for her.
"Yeah, and tragic too." She told him. "I'm going to die never remembering my true first kiss."
"Would you wish to die before this mission is over and remember this kiss?" Shino asked. "Lao Tzu left us with this freedom: 'Health or possession: which has more worth?' I cherish my comrade's health, so I will surrender any memory for their preservation. Let us return."
A kunai pierced the red chest of the bird and it crashed into the green moth infested tree with a final note. "Good shot, Choji." Kiba said and patted Choji on his shoulders. "Can't agrue with results."
Shikamaru sighed heavily but dropped further down when he heard the sound of a bird singing. "How troublesome." He muttered.
"Hey, what the hell do you mean?" Shikato rusty voice treatened. "'Kill the bird.' You said."
"How about this bird?" Kiba gave Shikamaru the finger. Akaramu barked. "He tells you, 'right here, buddy.'"
Shikamaru's posture slacked off and he gave them a sluggish stare. "We must have not been in the trap at all."
"What?!" Shikato shouted.
"The bird song was to lure people into the trap." He said.
Hinata winced as the Sage appeared before her and she saw a long pointed rock pretrude out of his back. All around the genins, four figures fell that looked like the Sage then bursting into bugs and the true one turned around to look at the group. "Stay close together, subordinates. We, journins, will take care of the projectiles." The sage peacefully and nodded to Shikato. "Be hesitant to move and don't be alarmed if you are pierced in a uncritical area."
Shikato appeared before Kiba and hit off a rock spear with a kunai. "I haven't checked the list of fatal areas in a while." He admited. "Has that area, you know, been called fatal yet?"
"What you blocked is not considered fatal in this situation," the Sage stated.
"Keep a kunai low, boys," Shikato warned them.
Shino and Ino arrived at the area where team ten had set off to enter the trap. "Where are they?"
"I don't know," Ino responded, "they should be here."
"I would be best if we waited here," Shino stated. "We shouldn't cause them any more problems."
Ino perked her ears to the song of a bird. "Lonely, isn't it?"
"Huh?" Shino wondered. "To what are you refering?"
"The bird that is singing." Ino answered. Shino lost his balance and sat down on a patch of sand covered ground. Ino offered her hand. "What happened?"
"I think we have entered the trap your team was suppose to investigate." Shino announced.
"No way," Ino said, "I have the map showing where the traps are."
"Then, the bird call was a lure for them to enter the trap," Shino said crossing his legs in a full lotus, "they would have stayed in this position once they have found out that our replacements were fakes. We must assume that we are not in the trap. The question is: how do we communicate with them?"
Ino paced up and down along the tree line humming a tune and Shino sat silently with his hands on his knees. "Eureka!" Ino snapped her fingers. "I got it."
Shino snapped up and put his hands in his pockets. "I believe you in."
Shikamaru squated against the back of Choji who snacked on a piece of cake on a plate. His weary weak arms drooped over his knees and he connected them by their fingertips. "Our leaders are protecting us," he glaced over his father knocking another incoming spear of rock out of the way, "but the trap is too fast for us, genins, to move."
Arms wrapped around Kiba from behind, and a rock was stopped before piercing him through his shoulder. Shikamaru turned his head with a crackle in his neck and saw Hinata with her arms around Kiba holding the rock. "Hinata," Shikamaru droned, "can you see through this illusion?"
"Aye," she gently gesture with a nod and played with her hair mixing blood from her hands in it.
"Search for any hints of seals hidden on the outside of this trap." He told her. Her vision spread out and she took note of seven seals surrounding the trap tighted high up in the trees. "If Ino has discovered the plan to free us, we would use that information."
"I see them." Hinata said and then jolted her head back. "Shino!"
Shino appeared in the cluster of the other genins and was panting hard. Half way to standing up, Kiba tried to hold Shino from behind and wrap his arms under his arms and around his chest. This help was stopped when Shino punched Kiba in the face and then got up the rest of the way. His hands rested on his shoulders then brushed down to the bottom of his coat. "Oh, maybe I shouldn't had been offended. Duh! How stupid of me!"
"Ino?" Choji paused his crunching on his chips.
"No worries." Shinos told Choji. "We're both fine."
The lacky hands of Shikamaru came together to produce various sounding claps. "Too bad we weren't remember this."
"Shit," Shino cursed. Kiba rubbed some blood from his nose and sniffed Shino. Akamaru joined and kept his distance to his allegric teammate to finally release a bark.
"You're right," Kiba stated, "when has he ever swore? Very out of character."
"Idiots," Shikaramu remarked. "Hinata will have some information for you about the locations of the seals around this trap."
He nodded.
Ino took a step back before racing up the tree with a kunai in her hand. She drew closer to the tree truck and slashed the final note. She slipped and fell but Hinata caught her. Around her, stood the two teams and their temporary leaders. "Well done Ino."
"What the hell did Ino do?" Kiba shouted.
"She entered Shino's body to come get information to us and still remain outside the trap if help could only matter out there." Shikamaru explained.
Shikato turned to face the other team's leader. "Well, no need to waste words here. So long."
With that, team ten was gone. The sage removed his glasses, and rubbed them. Turning them slightly to reflect what was behind his shoulder, he saw a figure bolt from a high branch. "We must be getting on as well."
-------- End of Chapter Nine ------------
Next Chapter: More traps to disarm for team eight, and they may run into Team Ten again. Kurenai is even closer to the S-class criminal she is after.
Notes: Yeah, this has taken me a long time to complete, but with Shikamaru, some brain teasing scheme has to come up for him to solve, or Ino, I guess some cleverness rubbed off on her.
Strange that no one is going to remember anything that happens in this chapter. Almost allows me to do anything. hehe
Predictions: Almost anything