A/N: Thank you for all the reviews and your patience for this chapter, I had a chapter nearly written up and decided to trash it, it just didn't feel right to me. So back to the drawing board and the result is this chapter.
Chapter 06 – The Most Important Thing Part II
It's true that ninjas need well-developed individual abilities, but it's teamwork that is much more important.
Kayaku thought about his plan thoroughly. There wasn't much time, Jiraiya's attack could come at any time, but he was sure is plan would work. It took the best element from everyone's attack and used them together. The only problem was one thing was missing…Chouichi.
"Hurry up," he pleaded.
"Don't rush me!" snapped Shinobu. She sat across from him, her legs crossed, and her hands in a seal. "This isn't easy!"
He watched as he could feel Shinobu molding the chakra, no doubt communicating with the bugs inside of her. His eyes widened as he watched the skin of her arms bulge and ripple rapidly, then suddenly a black swarm of destruction bugs burst from the tiny holes. Even from the two new holes on her cheek, that was underneath her eye like dark teardrops.
It was different from last time, by the river. It was more controlled and the bugs weren't in a panic to escape, but still it was disturbing to see so many bugs suddenly exit from the girl.
"You're watching!" she accused him. Kayaku didn't say anything, just smiled sadly at her, neither hateful nor disgusted. It was a smile of a friend and as much as she hated it, it made it easier to do what she had to do. "I wish I had my coat!"
The swarm rose into the air, away from her and separated into several directions into many groups. Her shoulders sagged and she released the hand seal from exhaustion. Until the bugs exited all at once, she had no idea how much discomfort she had from her earlier ordeal in the river. The bug's earlier hasty escape bruised the tunnels made of her own flesh.
"They'll return if they find something or not and tell me what they found."
"Thank you, Shinobu," he told. He understood it was difficult for her.
She nodded her head while wrapping her arms around herself. "I feel so empty, there are only a few left. The ill, the damaged, the grubs, or those caretaking the next generation."
"Do you feel like a normal person now?"
"No, its too quiet and I feel hollow," she uncrossed her legs, folded them up to her chest, and wrapped her arms tighter around them. "There are so many tunnels and holes I can never be normal."
"Your arms don't look that bad," he tried, trying to make her feel better.
"They're not just on my arms," she turned her face away from him and said softly, "they're everywhere." Shinobu lifted her pant leg to show a set of holes on her leg.
He watched her carefully, unsure what to say that would make her feel better.
Shinobu spoke instead, "You said ninja's needed unique abilities to survive, and those abilities were passed on to their family and clan to ensure their survival. So what unique abilities do you have?"
Kayaku chuckled nervously as he scratched his chin, "I don't have one…not yet anyway, but I can already use chakra to climb trees and I think I have that water walking figured out!"
"Those aren't unique, you know."
"I know," he said defensively. "I'll figure something out, it'll be the best technique that only my clan can do."
"Clan? You don't even have a clan name, have you thought about that?" At the look at his blank face, she figured no. "You haven't, geez, you haven't even thought it through yet. Have you?"
"I will, I'll come up with name!" He was over defensive this time, a little embarrassed that he hadn't even thought about it. "I bet even the Aburame had someone that had to come up with a name and decide that bugs living inside them was a good thing."
"Good thing?" She looked at him in irritation. Kayaku wasn't in any position to say how good it felt to have bugs living inside of him.
"I didn't mean it like that. I meant they found something that gave them an advantage over others. They don't actually eat…"
"They live off of my chakra, in return I can control them and use them with my techniques," she told him as she rolled her eyes. "They can manipulate flesh to form tunnels and exits, but they don't actually eat it for food."
Kayaku nodded and thought about. He didn't have experience with something living inside of him and was trying to understand. "So the bugs live inside you and give something back to make up for it."
"Yeah."
A bug zipped through the small forest clearing and buzzed around Kayaku. He swatted at wildly, not really even close to hitting it, and he suddenly paused, realized in horror at what he might of done, but Shinobu started laughing. It was the first time he ever heard her laugh.
"It's not one of mine," she told him.
"Sorry, it was buzzing in my ear!"
"I always hear buzzing in my ears," she told him, but the smile was still on her lips.
The first swarm of destruction bugs returned, they both heard the soft buzz of their wings. Shinobu shivered, knowing her brief piece without her bugs was near over.
Kayaku held out his hand, much like a child letting a harmless bug like a ladybug or fireflies land on his hand out of curiosity. He focused his chakra, like during the leaf concentration exercise, but without the leaf, and watched the blue glow of chakra on his hand.
The tiny swarm changed directions from Shinobu over to Kayaku's hand. They landed on his hand and the blue glow began to flicker as they began to feed.
"Hey! That's dangerous, that's how they can attack! Besides, they live inside of me!"
"It's okay, they're not hurting me," he told her. He stopped the flow of his chakra and once it was gone, the little black bugs were content with just leaving and flying back to Shinobu.
"They aren't supposed to do that!" She was irritated at own lack of control over the bugs. "If they just feed on anyone using chakra around them, it would be trouble."
More destruction bugs came back and Shinobu was silent for a while as she adjusted to the nest being active again.
"Jiraiya-sensei is still by the river," she reported what the bugs told her. "He hasn't moved far, and Chouichi is in a forest clearing."
"Can you take us there?"
"Yeah," she looked up. "Kayaku, you know there are only two bells, but three of us. Why would Chouichi agree to help us? One person will still be tied to the log!"
"Because I don't believe that's true," he told her as he stood up. "There is no way we can get a bell from a Jounin individually. You have to be a super-genius to figure out how. Instead, I think the only way to win is to work together."
"What if your wrong?"
"Since its my idea, that makes me the leader, and as the leader I'll accept the punishment if I'm wrong. I'll make sure both you and Chouichi pass."
"You really are an idiot," she said softly with a friendly smile.
Kayaku removed his sweat jacket and straightened out the white T-shirt underneath. It was a plain shirt, without a symbol for his clan or family since he had none…yet.
"I guess I'm going to need a clan symbol too," he remarked. He held out his jacket. "I know you lost your coat, but if makes you feel better you can wear this."
She stood up and took it. As she pulled it over her head, she spoke with a curious voice, "How well do you know Chouichi?"
"We're friends…kind of."
"Kind of? How is that being friends?"
"Well I'm not best friends, but I do hang out with him with a group of boys during and after school. I have stayed his cousin's house before. His cousin's father tells me stories about being a ninja and his mother sends lots of food home with me, afraid I'll get too thin if I only eat instant foods like ramen."
Shinobu rolled her eyes at that while she straightened out the jacket and rolled the sleeves up, leaving enough room to expose a few holes on her arms if she needed them.
"His cousin is Akimichi Chouza, from our class? They're the same age."
"Right, but don't get them confused. They're both Akimichi, but their personalities are different. Chouichi's really smart for one thing and he can do techniques that most Akimichi don't master until their thirteen!"
She listened to him, but thought he had a naïve view on friendship, but for once choose not to point out his failing, "Come on, let's get Chouichi."
Butterflies danced around Chouichi, ignoring the indelicate rumbling of his stomach, as he pulled a bag of chips from his equipment pouch. For an Akimichi, the need to replenish their calories, which their techniques use a lot of, made food very much an important piece of equipment.
He listened silently to the sounds of the forest: the birds chirping, the wind through the leaves of the trees, the river water against the rocks, and…the sound of the other boy yelling, his voice carried through the forest.
Chouichi smiled, the blond boy wasn't normally so loud, but his innate cheerfulness seemed to compound with his natural boyish energy, which sometimes got the better of him. With luck, the teacher heard that as well or was already fighting him. At least one person would end up tied to the log. If it already happened to someone else, the better chance of success he had at getting the bell.
He had to get the bell.
There was no doubt in his mind. He had to prove the Akimichi were as skilled ninja as the other noble clans by passing his first test from his new teacher, even is someone he called friend was punished for losing. All his life he had heard the jokes about the Akimichi weight and was never allowed to play ninja with the other kids. He was determined to show them that he was better ninja than they were.
Chouichi continued to eat his chips, deep in thought on how he could defeat his teacher.
A butterfly landed on his hand. He opened his hand and let the butterfly craw into his palm. The butterfly's beautiful autumn colored wings slowly flapped up and down as it rested on his hand. Chouichi opened his squinted eyes up for a moment to watch it.
His hand quickly closed into a fist, crushing the butterfly in his grip.
Just as quick, he opened his hands and wiped the butterfly's remains off on his pants. He was unaffected by the butterfly's death or his casual killing of it. Chouichi just reached into the bag and pulled out another chip.
His thoughts remained on how to get a bell and he decided to crush anything that got in his way.
Kayaku and Shinobu walked into the clearing, Chouichi watched them carefully, but looked back and forth, noticing Shinobu wearing the light blue sweat jacket.
"Why are you wearing Kayaku's jacket?" he asked Shinobu.
"Because you knocked my coat into the river!" she snapped.
"You shouldn't have left it on the tree," he said as he popped another chip in his mouth and ate it.
"Come on you guys, lets not argue!" tried Kayaku, realizing his plan had already started wrong. If they were going to use teamwork, they couldn't be arguing like this.
"What do you want, the test isn't over yet is it?"
"No, in fact that's why we're here. I have a plan," said Kayaku as he moved toward Chouichi, looking at him with friendly eyes. "If we all attack Jiraiya-sensei we can get both bells."
"But there are only two bells!"
Shinobu moved forward, "That's what I said, but Kayaku has a good point, he thinks the only way to get the bells at all is to cooperate because Jiraiya-sensei is too skilled otherwise to win alone."
"Why not just attack together, but whoever gets the bells win. If we use cooperation, then someone could do all the work and they could still be tied to the log!"
"I'm sure it won't come to that," argued Kayaku. "In fact, if it does I'll volunteer to be tied up instead since its may plan."
The other boy shook his round face with uncertainty and argued, "Jiraiya-sensei doesn't have to tie you up if you have a bell, he never agreed to tie someone up that wanted to be tied up."
"Fine," said Kayaku in a friendly compromising tone, "We make a plan and make sure both you and Shinobu have a bell. If cooperation wasn't the right answer for this test, then I'll be tied up anyway! I promise!"
"Kayaku!" warned Shinobu, worried where he was putting himself.
"I'm good with that," smiled Chouichi as he stood up and wiped the crumbs away as he put the rest of the bag back in his pouch. "Kayaku, you understand I need to achieve my goal and passing this test is important to start that path."
"O-Of course," Kayaku scratched his head in confusion, a little unaccustomed to other boy's seriousness. "I know how important goals are."
Chouichi nodded in agreement. "Then what is your plan?"
"Okay now," Shinobu said, glad that Chouichi had agreed to work together. "Jiraiya-sensei is probably getting impatient by now, so we need a plan quick."
Kayaku spoke, happy that everything was going smooth now, "I watched both of you attack before, and I know what would have worked. If we combine each advantage we had and eliminate the individual disadvantages, then it could work."
Both of the boys were talking about the plan, but Shinobu saw something that caught her attention. Sticking out with autumn colors against the green grass, was a crushed butterfly.
Shinobu picked it up and examined it with a sad gaze. It was a beautiful thing, crushed to pieces. She turned her gaze on Chouichi and watched him carefully.
Jiraiya was bored. He could have spent this time doing research or something instead of waiting for his new students to decide to do something.
"I should have brought a book," he muttered to himself.
He waited by the river, not far from where he told the kids they had a second chance. He begun to regret saying that and wished they would hurry up so he could tie all three of them up. Perhaps he would end his day by visiting a bathhouse or something.
He smiled at that thought.
Jiraiya snapped around, quickly pulling a kunai into his hand and blocked an incoming shuriken with a ringing sound of metal against metal. Another followed it and with eyes rather than just his ears determining its direction, he easily knocked it out of the and located its source, a large tree near the river with a hint of light blue clothing sticking out from the green leaves.
Kayaku again, he thought with disappointment. I realize he doesn't have any special attacks, but this is just a repeat of his first attack, how disappointing, oh well…time to tie him up.
As Jiraiya began to move, he heard rumble and turned. From the opposite direction came a green sphere rolling down the ground at incredible speeds.
Chouichi? He's using the Human Bullet Tank again, but at that speed, he won't be able to see my dodge or counterattack.
At that moment, a spread of shuriken launched from the tree. He managed to turn back in time to block one and watched as one shuriken landed in the ground on each side of him.
Are they working together! Jiraiya turned his head back and forth, keeping a careful eye on the tree and the incoming Chouichi. The shuriken are supposed to limit my movements, allowing Chouichi to be able to make a hit. Smart, but its not going to work kiddies.
He calmly stood, waiting for the human cannonball to get closer while blocking another spread of shuriken and then lunged closer to the river, knowing that the water would hinder Chouichi if he somehow managed to maneuver back around.
Another shuriken spread flew into the air, but Jiraiya easily ducked beneath their path and threw the kunai in his hand. He was careful this time, not to hit the patch of blue that he saw, but close enough to put some fear in the kid.
With the shrunken spread temporarily stopped, he dodged further and watched the large sphere roll right past him. Thinking he had dodged their attack, he stopped to speak, but he caught a flash of yellow running a short distance behind Chouichi, hidden by the larger form.
Kayaku!
Jiraiya's mind reeled, thinking that Kayaku had been the one throwing the shuriken in the opposite direction, but there was no mistaking the boy with spiky blond hair and determined blue eyes locked on Jiraiya, ready to attack.
Kayaku ran as fast as he could, following right behind Chouichi, making sure he was directly behind Chouichi from Jiraiya's perspective so he wouldn't be seen. Every time Chouichi adjusted his path, Kayaku moved with him.
He only had one weapon, a kunai that actually belonged to Shinobu, the same one that nearly hit him in the head earlier in the day, but he tucked it into his holster.
Instead in his right hand was a ball of destruction bugs, courtesy of Shinobu. Their legs locked together to form the larger solid shape to makeit easier to carry them. He was careful not to wrap his fingers too tightly around them so he wouldn't hurt them, instead he attached them to his hand by using his chakra, which they greedily ate, forcing him to mold more chakra, leaving his hand with a blue glow.
From the short distance behind Chouichi, he was able to see Jiraiya dodge out of Chouichi's way and start to relax until he caught Kayaku coming in fast.
Kayaku released his chakra and let the ball of destruction bugs launch toward Jiraiya. The ball unraveled in the air and the bugs attached themselves to Jiraiya. With his speed, he got them closer to Jiraiya than Shinobu could have in her current state and Jiraiya didn't expect destruction bugs coming from Kayaku.
"What!" said Jiraiya in surprise. The older ninja turned and looked back at the tree, only to see Shinobu climbing out of it, wearing Kayaku's light blue sweat jacket. She ran forward to get closer to the others.
Jiraiya didn't have any time to waste as Kayaku continued his attack. The boy pulled out his kunai and although there was a huge difference in size between him and Jiraiya, he attacked, forcing Jiraiya to block with one of his own kunai. Distracted by Kayaku's attack, Jiraiya couldn't look for the bugs that were searching for the bells.
Kayaku kicked and landed a foot on Jiraiya's chest and twisted to bring his kunai down. Jiraiya easily blocked it and used his strength the boy's kunai completely out of the way, but to his surprise they boy didn't fall off. Instead, the boy began walking, with the faint glow of chakra on his feet as he attached himself to the much larger ninja like he was a tree.
Jiraiya almost lost his balance, moving closer to the edge of the river, as he wrestled with the boy climbing up him as if he was mountain, while trying to block the kunai that kept trying to stab him. The boy went at him almost with killing intent to keep him distracted from the bugs eating at the strings that held the bells.
Eventually Kayaku had gotten to the top, with his feet attached to the back of Jiraiya's shoulders, an arm wrapped around Jiriaya's neck, and a kunai very close to something important like Jiraiya's eyes and throat.
"Stop it, you brat!" warned Jiraiya. He grabbed a hold of Kayaku and managed to pull the boy off, but Kayaku twisted around upside down, dropped his kunai, and reached out for the bells. Destruction bugs covered the strings, eating through them and letting the bells fall, one into each of Kayaku's hands. Jiraiya frowned, "You're a stubborn one!"
Kayaku didn't even have time to give him a smile in victory as Chouichi attacked again, his cannonball shape speeding towards them.
The boy tried to warn Chouichi, "Wait, I've got the—"
Chouichi hit both of them hard with enough force that it knocked Kayaku out Jiraiya's hand and towards the river, which was only a few feet away.
"Why?" he managed to groan to himself, his plan had worked, but Chouichi wasn't suppose to attack like that.
Yet, Kayaku remembered his promise and despite the situation, he threw a bell from each hand with perfect aim to his teammates, one to Shinobu, and the other to Chouichi. They each caught their bell and watched with shocked looks as he fell into the river.
Kayaku hit the water splashed and he sank in right in. The river wasn't fast and didn't sweep him away, but the blow knocked all the air from his lungs and his limbs were feeling numb from the constant use of chakra, he continued to sink.
He felt like he was still falling. If he were falling from a tree he would extend a hand to use chakra to attach to the nearest limb, out of desperation the tried it, but in the water there was nothing to attach to.
His lungs burned as he watched his hand stretched above his head, glowing with chakra. In his panic, the chakra was unfocused, streaming out of his hand in every direction. The chakra managed to swirl around like a spiral, forming a whirlpool above his head.
All he could do was watch the small whirlpool, highlighted by the eerie light of his chakra, in his last moments before he lost consciousness.
The outline of the chakra filled whirlpool was still burning into his vision, even as he woke up, coughing up water. Whether his eyes were closed or not, he could see it.
"He'll be fine," said Jiraiya as he patted Kayaku on the back.
The boy looked up and saw his teacher was soaked himself, no doubt from having to go in and rescue him. He looked around and saw the other watching him, each with a bell in their hand.
"Is it over," he managed to smile despite the coughing.
"Yes, its over," said his teacher with a grin. "Can you stand?"
Kayaku managed to get on his feet, although they wobbled a little, leaned back, and felt something hard behind him. He didn't even bother to look, as he tried to make the weakness go away, and he didn't even notice Jiraiya moving behind him.
Until a loop of a rope slid around him and tightened, he looked back in shock to see, he was standing right behind a log and Jiraiya was tying him to it!
"What!"
"You didn't get a bell, so you get to be tied to the log."
"But I thought teamwork was the whole point! We use teamwork to use the bells, so no one had to be tied to a log!"
"Idiot, what gave you that idea!" Jiraiya tied the rope multiple times around Kayaku and the log, making it secure enough that even a rope escape technique couldn't release it. "Besides, look at yourself, was it teamwork to nearly get killed? Now the rule was I was going to take the others to eat while you stayed tied up, I'll be back for you later."
Jiraiya walked away with the others following, he gave Kayaku once cryptic glance before leaving. Chouichi didn't even look at him, he was happy with the bell in his hand. Shinobu on the other hand, looked back with an uncertain expression, but reluctantly followed the others.
"Chouichi!" Kayaku managed to yell. "Why did you attack when the plan worked!"
The Akimichi boy turned around and looked at him with squinted eyes. "My plan worked too."
"Your plan?"
"I didn't think someone like you would actually do it, but I thought you would be a good distraction so I could get a bell," said Chouichi simply as he turned and walked away.
Kayaku sagged against the rope. He was soaking wet, exhausted, and hungry, and he wasn't going anywhere. The rope was so tight that he couldn't even wiggle. All he had was time to think about what went wrong.
An individual action that disrupts the teamwork will result in danger or even death for the teammates.
Next Chapter – Conclusion (or maybe not)
Author's Note: Yep, I made Chouichi an evil genius, well he's not evil yet, but in the Naruto world all the genius types seem to go to the dark side unless their rescued by someone. I didn't originally intend to go this route, but Chouichi turned into a clone of gentle Chouji, which wasn't what I wanted at all. I decided to create some team conflicts by using his genius status. I think it wasn't totally out of the blue, because Chouichi did almost kill Shinobu in a previous chapter (he almost plowed into the tree she was tied to).
I wanted to sneak in Rasengan somehow, so I came up with something that looked like it. By using teamwork, Kayaku used his own speed to get Shinobu's bugs to where they needed to be, since Jiraiya wasn't expecting it coming from Kayaku he couldn't block it in time. The bugs made themselves portable by forming a sphere shape and Kayaku used chakra to attach them to his hand without crushing them. I suppose it could be called a Mushigan!
Sarutobi's bell test was clearly an individual effort and he wasn't teaching teamwork, so that is how Jiraiya taught it, but between then and Kakashi's test it had turned into a test about teamwork. Given the Fourth talked about teamwork being the most important thing, I decided he had to be the one who changed it. He didn't talk about it because of victory, but because it failed.
One more chapter to go until the conclusion of the arc, just a sneak peak: while tied to the log it leaves Kayaku vulnerable to a new rival!
Version 1.0
1.0: Original