Let's start this from the beginning

Kabasawa Mines

VII

Shino knew that getting riled up about Gouzen insulting his clan wasn't the smart thing to do, but in his defence, it wasn't as if he had actually lost all reasoning because of one single comment. No, his self-control was better than that. That being said, they had no other choice but to fight him regardless of whether they truly wanted to or not. Leaving the people they were supposed to protect on their own simply wasn't an option.

Thus, he might just as well allow himself to get angry. As long as he managed to regain enough control over himself to not fall into a mindless rage, the rush of anger would actually be useful in drowning out the clump of hesitation and insecurity that had been sitting in the pit of his stomach ever since Gouzen tanked his, Kiba's, and Akamaru's combined attacks without as much as a scratch.

That turned out to be a good decision, too, as it was only because of the rush of adrenaline that came with the anger that he could dodge their opponent's attack.

While Shino jumped to the left, Kiba and Akamaru jumped to the right, all three of them managing to avoid being impaled by the pale purple crystals that burst from beneath their feet.

Gouzen was upon him as soon as he touched the ground again, probably judging him the lesser threat in close combat.

But while that might be the case, Shino intended to show him how wrong he was in thinking he was easy prey.

Gouzen's fist flew straight for Shino's face, but instead of trying to dodge or even block, he swung his staff to redirect it to the side with just enough strength to make it miss his head. Then, changing his grip on the still extended staff, he jabbed his weapon forward, aiming for Gouzen's face in turn, only to suddenly be forced to change his posture once more to bring his staff between himself and the kick that surely would have broken at least some ribs.

While he managed to avoid that, the force behind it still threw him backwards.

"Shōton: Yari!" (Crystal Release: Crystal Lance)

Gouzen jumped after him, a four-feet long crystal lance forming around his right arm.

Shino raised his staff to redirect the attack once more, but before he had even the chance to do so, he caught sight of a blur from the corner of his eyes.

Gouzen apparently saw it as well, raising his left arm to defend himself, and a second later, Kiba slammed into it with a screamed "Tsuga!" on his lips.

The resulting shockwave was enough to blow Shino's sunglasses from his face, but he barely even noticed. Instead, he focused on the confrontation in front of him where Gouzen held his ground against Kiba's attack, not allowing himself to be pushed back even one bit. From the way the sunlight sparkled around his hand, it was obvious that he had used his crystal armour technique just in time.

Ultimately, the showdown lasted for barely more than three seconds, and Shino didn't get the chance to intervene before a second blur appeared over Gouzen and slammed into him, breaking his contest with Kiba and smashing him into the ground.

"Good job, Akamaru!" Kiba yelled as he landed next to Shino, hands raised to initiate their plan for real. "Now get-"

His voice was cut off when Shino slammed into him to push him out of the way from a dozen or so crystal spikes the size of his forearm that suddenly flew towards them from out of the dirt cloud.

The two of them were back on their feet within moments, prepared for any potential follow-up attack, while Akamaru jumped away to hide somewhere else from where he could wait for another chance to attack.

"Well, that was a failure."

Shino kept his glare focused on the slowly emerging form of Gouzen. "No matter. We simply try again."

Plan Red didn't involve some kind of complicated series of attacks. Instead, it was a general approach that aimed to get their opponent into a specific position. How they got them there didn't matter, allowing them much more freedom in how they could act than if each of their moves depended on the success of a prior attack.

It also meant they could try the plan again and again without giving anything away.

Kiba scoffed. "Let's hope the next attempt goes better than this one, then."

One of Itachi-sensei's first lessons had been to always find their enemy's strengths and weaknesses before they did. To find clips in their armour to exploit and to fake such things themselves in order to throw them off their tracks.

As of right now, Shino had yet to find a weakness in their opponent.

In terms of strengths, on the other hand, well…

Gouzen clearly had an edge on both him and Kiba in terms of physical prowess. There was no doubt that he was stronger and, while not to the point where he could simply blitz them, faster than them. He had more experience, too, and surely his arsenal of techniques and chakra reserves were greater as well.

However, his greatest advantage was obviously this armour technique...

Shino's eyes widened in realization.

"He doesn't need to use hand seals to use his armour." Shino would have seen if he had waved hand seals before raising his hand to block Kiba's attack, but he didn't. "In that case…."

"In that case, actually hitting him will be pretty damn hard." Judging from his grimace, Kiba understood exactly how troublesome that was. "Unless we manage to catch him by surprise, he will simply block whatever we throw at him."

He was right, but Shino couldn't say that out loud. Actually saying it would – in his mind – be the same as admitting defeat, and he couldn't do that.

"We continue with Plan Red."

Kiba's head jerked around. "What?!"

"It's the best approach," he said, the calm he tried to portray to the outside belied only by the way the grip on his staff tightened. "It's still the approach that leaves us with the most freedom."

"That doesn't mean a lot if we can't catch him by surprise! We-"

"Don't tell me you're scared?"

That made Kiba's mouth shut with a snap.

It might be a cruel tactic, but right now, insulting Kiba's ego was the easiest way to make him cooperate. Shino was sure that his approach was the best thing they could do at the moment, but he needed his teammate's help to pull it off, so if this was what it took to get it, he would do it.

"Did you two finish your little discussion?" Gouzen walked out of the dust cloud none the worse to wear, the only difference being that he looked really pissed now. "If you realize just how hopeless your situation is, why not just lay down and die? I promise I will make your death quick if you do."

Despite the situation, Shino almost had to crack a smile at that. Kiba, on the other hand, had much less restraint and outright snorted. "Really? Do you think you're the villain from some kind of children's book or something? Like, seriously, what's with that cheesy line?"

Judging from the pulsing vein on Gouzen's forehead, that was apparently the wrong thing to say, though.

Shōton: Gosunkugi!" (Crystal Release: Crystal Spikes)

Once again, they were forced to dodge pale purple crystal projectiles.

This time, however, Shino didn't wait for Gouzen to attack him. Instead, he rushed towards him first.

Twisting out of the way from incoming crystals, Shino either avoided the attacks outright or, when that wasn't possible, smashed them aside with his staff before they could hit him. Then, as soon as he was within range, he swung his weapon in a wide arc towards Gouzen's head.

The man didn't bother trying to dodge or block, but Shino hadn't expected him to. With such a predictable blow, surely he would simply use his armour technique again to overwhelm him.

He was proven right a moment later when his staff repelled against his head. Instead of letting that demotivate him, Shino whirled around his own axis, distinctively aware of the fist that barely missed him as he did so. A moment later, the tip of his staff slammed into Gouzen's stomach.

Although his body writhed on impact, he showed no reaction to indicate he had been hurt. That didn't matter much to Shino, though.

Gouzen made to grab the staff, probably expecting a follow-up attack, but instead, Shino took a step back, barely avoiding Gouzen's hands.

Then, he raised his staff to point directly at his opponent's head.

A moment later, insects swarmed out of a nearly imperceptible hole at the tip and blasted right into Gouzen's face.

Now, he might be able to somehow be able to blast his insects away when they surrounded his body, but would he be able to do it if they were inside of him?

Just as he had expected, Gouzen blasted the insects that hadn't managed to get into his mouth away by creating an expanding sphere of crystals that quickly blew everything in the area around him into bits.

Of course, Shino was long since gone by then.

"You damn-"

Gouzen didn't have time to utter his no doubt very creative insult before a grey blur smashed into his side. This time, however, there were two important differences from the previous times this happened: first, the blur was almost twice as large as the ones before, and second, its colour was in a much darker shade.

So Kiba and Akamaru are working together this time, Shino thought, feeling hesitantly optimistic. And they're using the skin hardening technique Sensei taught them, too.

They hadn't mastered it yet, meaning they could neither keep it up for as long as they would have liked to nor use it to strengthen themselves as much as theoretically possible, but even just using it to the level they were capable of already increased their attack power immensely. Shino had seen them tore through rock as if it was paper when they combined it with their Gatsuga as they were doing now, so even if Gouzen's crystals were stronger than rock, it would surely do something!

Shino tried not in indulge too much in the satisfaction he felt at the booming explosion when Gouzen was crushed to the ground.

Kiba wasn't done with just that, though. He didn't even wait until the emerging dust cloud had dispersed before falling into a crouch, weaving hand seals, and slamming his hands on the ground.

"Doton: Doryu Taiga!" (Earth Release: Earth Flow River)

Shino couldn't see it, but the surprised exclamation that could be heard from within the cloud meant that the technique was a success, trapping their opponent in place as the ground beneath him transformed into a mud river. Now it's my turn.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)

His fireball might still be a far cry from his sensei's, but it was more than enough to burn any enemy it hit to a crisp.

It had been quite the surprise to find that he had a fire affinity. Such a thing was ridiculously rare in his clan where most had either earth or water affinities. In fact, Shino's research showed that there were currently only three other Aburame alive who had one, and the clan records showed that there had been no more than five alive at the same time at any point in recorded history.

Kiba had found this quite amusing, he remembered, saying something about it representing the passion he supposedly tried to behind a calm mask or some such nonsense.

Unfortunately, it seemed that every Aburame – past and present – who had been 'unlucky' enough to be born with a fire affinity hadn't even bothered with trying to come up with a way to combine it with their clan's techniques, deciding that its inherent danger for insects of any kind made it unsuitable for such. They usually didn't even bother with learning a lot of regular fire Ninjutsu either. Instead, they ignored their affinity and concentrated on learning other techniques they considered more useful.

Shino disagreed. So far, he had only one vague idea of how he could potentially combine his element and his Kikaichū in battle, one which he had yet to either test or even just discuss with his father, but he wouldn't give up. He would find a way to combine these two things.

He was limited to regular Ninjutsu for now, but it seemed that was more than enough. Even Gouzen couldn't protect his entire body from fire, especially not when he was stuck in mud.

Although he did send his insects out to make sure he was dead. Letting his guard down at a critical moment like this would simply be foolish.

Plan Red, aka catch an enemy in Kiba's swamp and then burn them to a crisp, was a complete success.

"It actually worked, huh?"

Shino nodded. "He didn't consider us a threat. Had he taken us seriously, things would have been different."

"You say that, but your expression tells a different story."

"And what kind of expression am I supposedly making?"

"A smug one," Kiba chuckled. "A very smug one. The 'everything went exactly according to plan' kind of smug, to be precise."

Shino turned his head to actually look at Kiba, ready to reply with something appropriately sarcastic, and it was only because of this that he witnessed what happened next:

One moment Kiba still stood next to him, and the next, he was blown away by a white blur that was barely visible to Shino's eye. Then, before he could do as much as blink and even before the explosion of Kiba slamming through several trees could reach his ears, a hand roughly grabbed him by his throat and lifted him into the air.

"So you really tried to make me eat bugs, huh? I'm sure you felt pretty clever when you thought of that, didn't you?"

Even if Shino had wanted to, with how tight the grip on his throat was, he wouldn't have been able to reply. As it was, even just breathing was a chore.

"Little shit, I will make you-"

Gouzen stopped midsentence while whirling around to send a kick towards an incoming blur. A moment later, Akamaru let out a pained yelp as he was smacked to the side, bouncing over the ground twice before finally coming to a stop about thirty metres away from them.

Obviously, as he was still in Gouzen's grasp, Shino was whirled around as well, but while the pain that shot through his neck as a result was far from comfortable, it allowed him to mount an escape attempt.

Using the momentum of Gouzen's movement, he thrusted the staff he still held tightly grabbed towards his opponent's throat while simultaneously releasing his kikaichū. As expected, his staff didn't connect with soft flesh but some hard surface that couldn't be anything but a layer of crystal. Furthermore, now that he was so close to Gouzen, Shino recognized the shockwave of chakra that was emitted from his opponent as soon as Shino's insects left his body; although his Kikaichū were able to eat chakra, there was a limit to how much they could process at a time. Gouzen apparently defended himself by emitting more chakra than they could handle to push them away. A wasteful strategy to be sure, but an effective one.

That didn't matter, though.

As he attacked with his staff and his insects, Shino also threw a kick towards the axel of the arm that held him up, using the distraction of his other attacks in the hope of surprising his opponent.

Half a second later, his foot hit its target, and this time, he met no resistance.

Gouzen let him fall to the ground with a pained curse, and Shino didn't waste any time.

"Katon: Haijingakure no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Hiding in Ash and Dust Technique)

The searing pain that surged through his throat as his chakra transformed into ash and dust almost made him reflexively cancel the technique. In fact, he didn't think he had ever felt so much pain in his entire life, and it took all he had to continue it.

Using the distraction of the dust cloud, he jumped away, trying to get as far away as he could before Gouzen found his bearings again.

Shino didn't get far before he was grabbed by his shoulder and pulled away. In this instance, it was probably a good thing that his throat was in too much pain to allow him to make a sound, but that didn't stop him from lashing out with his staff.

Another good thing was that Kiba had trained with him regularly enough by now to predict this reaction and stop the attack before it could either connect or make some kind of loud sound.

"Relax," Kiba whispered harshly into his ear. "It's just me."

Shino opened his mouth, but as soon as he tried to reply, his throat tightened, and the effort it took to stop the coughing fit that was threatening to overtake him and which would certainly have betrayed their position was enough to make him tear up.

"Shit, he got you real good, didn't he?" Shino couldn't see him, but the concern in Kiba's voice was impossible to miss. Then, once it was clear Shino had somewhat relaxed, Kiba continued, "Alright, just stay silent and listen, yeah?"

Shino nodded. Not that I have much of a choice, now have I?

"I might have a way to get through that armour of his."

His eyes widened fractionally.

Sensing the unasked question, Kiba continued, "The one I trapped in my earth technique earlier was only a clone. A crystal clone. That's how he escaped your attack. He didn't even need to use his armour to defend himself." Then, a grin spread over his face. "However, my and Akamaru's attack actually cracked it! Not enough to break through completely or anything like that, but if we can add just a little bit more power, I think we should be able to do just that."

That would explain why the insects he had sent out to check on Gouzen after he thought he hit him with his fireball hadn't seen the attack coming; while they were still on route to where the remains of Gouzen's clone were stuck in the mud, the real one came for them from another direction.

Regardless, all this mattered little if Kiba didn't actually have a way to break through Gouzen's armour.

"Just keep him busy for a minute or so," Kiba said, evidently knowing exactly what he was thinking. "Akamaru is already preparing a small trap, but that will not keep him busy for long. I don't think I can finish him off even if I actually break through his armour, though…" He hesitated for a moment, looking rather nervous before he managed to hide it behind a confident façade. "I won't be able to continue to fight after I used this technique, so it depends on you to give him the finishing blow afterwards, and to be completely honest, I can't say for sure I will even be able to land a hit without some kind of plan, so…" Kiba looked almost physically in pain when he continued. "You're better at this than I am, so you'll have to come up with a plan on how best to go about it."

In all honestly, they didn't have much of a choice other than betting everything they had on whatever technique Kiba was talking about. Judging from how their previous short but intense confrontation had gone, and considering what Shino knew about his and his teammate's arsenal and abilities, this fight wasn't one they could realistically win. As much as it irked him, the best thing they could do right now was to send a message back to the camp, hope they take it seriously and leave, and try to buy them as much time as they could in the meantime before retreating themselves.

However, if Kiba really has some kind of ace up his sleeves, then…

It might be foolish, but Shino didn't want to give up. He didn't want to admit defeat. Even as his heart beat wildly in his chest and his hands trembled with a combination of anticipation and anxiety, he didn't want to lose this fight.

He should prioritize the lives of the people they were supposed to protect – hell, maybe he should even prioritize the lives of him and Kiba! After all, this wasn't part of the original mission they set out for. Was it truly the right decision to risk their lives for this?

Regardless of whether it was right or not, ultimately, both he and Kiba had already decided to do this.

Even as Shino hesitated, he knew in his heart that he had made the decision the very moment they had decided to confront Gouzen.

After what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a second or two, he nodded, motioning for Kiba to explain what technique he had in mind so that he could plan accordingly.

They had only this one shot, so he would have to do this right.

Failure simply wasn't an option.

A few minutes later, Shino observed Gouzen as he once again began moving towards his original target. This time, however, he used the trees instead of running over the ground like before, having clearly learned his lesson in that respect. He obviously didn't want to be surprised again the way he had been earlier.

Shino and Kiba had been rather fortunate that he had waited so long before moving out again while they strategized. They had tried to hurry, of course, but even just a few minutes of a head start would have been a serious problem. The fact that Shino currently couldn't speak and thus had to explain his plan through a combination of hand signs and words written on the ground didn't make their situation any easier.

Anyway, as luck would have it, Gouzen started to run pretty much exactly when they finished their discussion.

Thus, here he was, observing their opponent from afar while waiting for the first trap Akamaru had set to spring shut so that he could start his own attack and give Kiba, who was currently hiding elsewhere, the opening he needed.

Shino didn't have to wait long.

Just when Gouzen landed on another branch, an explosion went off, enveloping the branch and the missing-nin on it both in a blaze of fire. That wasn't enough to take him down, of course. Only half a second after the explosion went off, Gouzen jumped out of the resulting smoke cloud, his clothes – which consisted of little more than tattered pants at this point – barely singed and his skin still unscathed.

But the most important detail was that his entire body was enraptured by a layer of pale purple crystal!

I thought he could only protect certain areas, not his whole body at once! Shino cursed inwardly before shaking his head to stop himself from getting distracted. This didn't matter; whether he could protect his whole body at once or only some parts of it was of little concern as long as Kiba could break through it. This didn't change a thing. Their plan was still valid.

If Gouzen thought the ambush would be over after only one explosion, he would be wrong. The moment the first bomb went off, a chain reaction was triggered, resulting in over two dozen more explosions all around him. Most were too far away to actually harm him, but injuring him wasn't their purpose in the first place. Much rather, the explosion tags had been placed in all the trees in the area to make sure Gouzen would jump into one of them regardless of in which direction he tried to escape.

The only way he could have taken to avoid them was backwards, but while Shino had a contingency plan in case he took that path, Gouzen had fortunately jumped forward, making this point moot.

Instead of harming Gouzen, the purpose of this second set of explosions was to force Gouzen down from the trees and back to the ground, and they did this just fine, their shockwaves pushing him away before he could reach another branch.

That was when Shino struck.

First, he sent out half of his remaining Kikaichū to swarm Gouzen while he was still in mid-air. He would have liked to use even more, but unfortunately, his other half was currently busy preparing something else.

As expected, Gouzen repelled his insects a few moments later with a bellowed curse. However, it proved something Shino had been suspecting, bringing a relieved smile to his face.

So far, Gouzen had always deactivated his armour as soon as he no longer needed it, making it likely that he literally couldn't keep it up for long periods. Whether that was because it consumed too much chakra or because he simply lacked the skill to do so, Shino didn't know, but knowing this wasn't necessary anyway. Furthermore, he always deactivated his armour when Shino's kikaichū swarmed him. Now, one would think it would be preferable to keep the armour up when surrounded by chakra eating insects, so the fact that he didn't do so must mean he couldn't repel them while using it.

Consequently, this was the best moment to attack.

No sooner had his insects dispersed, a kunai with an attached explosion tag went off right in front of Gouzen.

The stifled cry that rang out a moment later was music to Shino's ears. He didn't let that distract him, however, and jumped toward his opponent even before the smoke cloud had vanished.

He reached Gouzen just as his feet touched the ground.

Gouzen's eyes widened when he saw him, his expression a mix of not only anger and surprise but pain as well, but he managed to lean his head out of the way to avoid the staff that would otherwise have hit him in the face.

Shino didn't let up there and immediately followed up with another strike that Gouzen blocked with one forearm, and even though both his arms were covered in burs, having evidentially used them to ward off the worst of the previous blast, he didn't even flinch.

"You little shit have no idea what you just brought upon yourself!"

Shino wouldn't have replied even if he could speak at the moment. Instead, he withdrew his staff before Gouzen could grab it and delivered a kick to the right side of his knee.

Unlike his opponent, he could not suppress a wince when his foot hit his hard crystal.

He didn't let that stop him from slamming his staff into the ground and pushing himself away to avoid Gouzen's punch, though.

He also used the brief pause to send a mental signal via chakra pulse to command the kikaichū who had survived the earlier chakra overload to attack Gouzen once again.

The man jumped right through the swarm, dispersing them the same way he had done several times already and deactivating his crystal armour in the process.

Shino also noticed that his breathing seemed a bit more laboured than just a moment earlier.

He had not much time to think about that, however, as he was immediately forced to defend himself.

Redirecting Gouzen's first punch with his staff to go wide, he took a step back to keep enough distance between them so that he could continue to use his weapon. Then, he did the same thing a second time when he directed another punch, and then a third time when he blocked a kick whose strength was so great that he could feel the power of the impact travel through his arms and all the way up to his shoulders.

"Shōton: Yari!" (Crystal Release: Crystal Lance)

Shino had barely enough time to send another signal to his kikaichū before he had to lean backwards to dodge the attack, not trusting himself to either try and reflect or outright block it and well aware that he wouldn't have been fast enough had he tried to dodge it the traditional way.

The crystal lance passed over him by a hair, sparing him the fate of being impaled by it, but there was little he could do to avoid the blow when Gouzen slammed his arm around which the lance had formed down, smashing Shino into the ground.

Now, while this was definitively still a much better fate than being impaled, Shino could have done without having his breath knocked out of him. His only consolation was that the weapon itself broke into many little pieces as Gouzen stopped the technique to disperse Shino's remaining kikaichū again.

He did so in less than a second, but this short amount of time was all it took for Shino to gather himself enough to roll out of the way as Gouzen stomped on the ground where his head had been a moment earlier.

Following that, Shino couldn't do more than hastily bring his staff between himself and his opponent before the follow-up kick threw him backwards.

For one moment, he felt weightless as he flew through the air, but he was quickly brought back to the present as he bounced off the ground with a painful gasp, and when he managed to twist his body to land in a crouch a second later, it was more due to muscle memory than actual skill.

It allowed him to defend himself when Gouzen came after him again, though, so he wasn't complaining.

Besides, I wanted to lure him in this direction anyway, so there's at least that...

Using his smaller stature, he ducked beneath the first wide swing before simultaneously taking one more step backwards and jabbing his staff into Gouzen's stomach. Surprisingly, he actually hit soft flesh this time, and this unexpected turn was enough to throw him off for a moment and give his opponent an opening.

Gouzen grimaced just a little bit but otherwise took the hit without much of a reaction, apparently using his bulky and muscular build to tank the attack this time instead of his crystal armour. Taking advantage of Shino's surprise, he then grabbed the staff with one hand before he could pull it back while also throwing a punch at him with the other.

With no other choice, Shino let go of his weapon and dodged the attack by falling further back.

He didn't expect Gouzen to throw the staff after him, unfortunately.

It struck him in the stomach with enough force to almost make him throw up, and while he couldn't be sure, Shino thought he could hear some of his bones break under the impact.

The pain that came with it was enough to make his vision go black, and even as his sight returned a few moments later when he found himself lying on his back without even remembering how he had ended up there, everything was blurred and dotted with stars.

He was only jerked back into the present when a foot pushed down onto his chest.

"You're going to pay for this, you hear me, you little punk?" Gouzen said, and even though the shroud of his dazed mind, Shino noticed that he appeared much more exhausted than their short bout should justify. "That dog boy was a pest, but you are the worst piece of shit I have ever met. By the time I'm done with you, you will beg for the mercy of death!"

Shino paid little attention to the – frankly speaking – rather cliché threats of his opponent. Instead, he focused on the chakra pulses he could sense from beneath him. Oh, right, he thought blearily. I wanted to lure him here, didn't I?

"I don't know where your stupid friend is hiding, but if he's smart, he's already long gone, which means you will have to suffer for the two of you."

If this is the location, I need to initiate the next phase.

"Forget this mission and that damn captain. I don't give a shit about any of that. It's not like he can do anything anyway. No, I will focus all my attention solely on you!"

In that case, there's only one thing I have to do…

Shino sent out a single command to the kikaichū in the earth below him. That was the other half of his colony he had sent away before confronting Gouzen for the second time, and it was for this very moment that they had prepared.

It was time to let the trap snap shut.

For one moment after he sent out his command, the world seemed to stand still. Then, without any prior warning, the ground in about a ten-metre radius around him and Gouzen began to cave in.

Gouzen let out a surprised grunt, and Shino used that short moment of distraction to make his move. With the ground beneath his back giving in, the pressure on his chest where Gouzen's foot pressed down on him momentarily lessened, allowing him to push the limb away and free himself. Moreover, disregarding his protesting ribs, he pulled his legs to his chest before using Gouzen's ones to catapult himself away, resulting not only in himself being hurled out of the affected area but also in Gouzen's legs being swept away from under him and consequently preventing him from escaping himself.

The ground where Gouzen was currently sinking in had been purposefully prepared for this trap. First, Kiba had used a greatly underpowered version of his Earth Flow Technique to soften the earth in the targeted area without actually turning it into mud so as not to give it away. Afterwards, Shino had sent out one half of his remaining colony to dig in and loosen the earth even more until it was just about ready to collapse.

He hadn't been sure whether they would truly be able to do this without accidentally weakening the ground to the point where it would give in as soon as someone stepped onto it, but apparently, they were.

At that point, it had only been a matter of him giving them the final command to make it collapse for good.

However, while it might have caught Gouzen by surprise, he would be able to free himself sooner rather than later, so Kiba had to hurry if-

"Jinjū Konbi Henge: Sōtōrō!" (Human Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf)

Shino only had a little more than a second to stare at the huge, two-headed white wolf that came flying down before it changed colour to a dark black – a telltale sign of the earth technique Kiba used to harden his skin – and started spinning, and although Kiba had told him about it, he still had to mentally convince himself that this was indeed his teammate and not just a hallucination of his still befuddled mind.

Then, the creature slammed into Gouzen, making the ground around them explode while the resulting shockwave was powerful enough to throw even Shino, who was almost fifteen metres away, away until he was forcefully stopped by a tree, the impact almost making him almost faint on the spot as his ribs screamed in pain.

However, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay awake as he watched the slowly dispersing dust cloud for any signs of either his teammates or their opponent.

He had no idea how long it took, but then, finally, he caught sight of Kiba and Akamaru, lying approximately ten metres away from the epicentre of the impact.

Both were unconscious, too, but a quick glance confirmed that neither had any noteworthy injuries and that both were breathing steadily. Kiba had said that he would be out of it after the attack, but Shino had still needed to make sure that it was really only the aftereffect of their own technique that had knocked them out rather than some desperate counterattack from Gouzen. Now that he had confirmed that, he could relax somewhat.

And thinking of Gouzen…

"Fucking unbelievable…"

The man looked much less imposing than he had earlier; his long white hair, which had previously reached halfway down his back, was mostly torn out and now barely reached his shoulders, his chest was bloodied and covered with deep gashes, his left arm hung limply at his side, and pieces of crystal, which must have been the remains of his armour technique, were slowly crumbling to the ground. His face hadn't been spared either, with blood running down his forehead and a grievous cut over his right eye marking the making of a new, second scar for him.

Even so, however, he somehow still stood on his feet.

"Oh, you will-" A coughing fit interrupted him, but he managed to suppress it after just a few seconds. "You will… pay for this."

Stay calm, Shino told himself as he slowly straightened up to sit with his back against the tree. We expected this. Just follow the plan.

Hidden in the sleeves of his jacket, he formed a single hand seal.

Gouzen took an unsteady step towards him. "Don't think you have won this," he said with a hoarse voice. "You may have… hit me, but I can still move." He pulled a face that was probably supposed to be a fierce grin but actually looked more like a pained grimace than anything else. "You, on the other hand… can't."

He wasn't wrong. Kiba and Akamaru were unconscious while Shino struggled to even just sit upright. Although Gouzen looked terrible himself and would probably lose hands-down to either of them if they were still rested, the fact alone that he could still move – albeit unsteadily – was more than enough to give him the edge. Fighting him simply wasn't possible.

At least physically, that is.

It was most likely this little detail that allowed Shino to stay calm. Calmer than he had been at any point during the entire fight, even.

Although to be fair, the concussion he suspected he had could also play a part in that.

He might think Kiba's technique has been our final attack, but in truth, this is. After all, you're supposed to keep your trump card hidden until the very end.

As if on command, Gouzen's eyes suddenly widened, and he let out a breathless gasp before he fell to his knees. "What the-"

He couldn't even finish the sentence before he doubled over in pain, grasping his chest with his one good arm.

"My kikaichū… consume chakra," he managed to croak, the desire to – frankly speaking – gloat overriding his instinctive urge to rest his throat. "But they can also… transfer it to others. I have… a fire affinity." He couldn't have kept the smug grin from his face even if he wanted to. "I assume… you don't."

The Aburame Clan bred many different kinds of insects. Each individual colony was, of course, unique in some way, but they shared most characteristics with other colonies of the same species. For example, his kikaichū were part of the common evolutionary lineage injected into each clan member shortly after birth, and although each individual colony gained individual traits depending on how their hosts used them, they generally all shared some basic properties. Most notably, the ability to consume and distribute chakra.

There was another, rarer but still somewhat common breed that could rapidly grow in size if the consumed chakra, growing as tall as grizzly bears if they just fed enough, and that wasn't the end of it. There were many ways to direct one's colony in a certain direction to gain one of the many abilities his clan had recorded over the generations.

However, most clan members would never use anything else than the breed they had been injected with upon birth, remaining for all their lives limited to what ultimately remained basic kikaichū regardless of whatever quirks they might develop in the process of their evolution.

Simply put, most were just not capable enough to handle the more advanced breeds.

For example, other than Shino's father, there was currently only one other Aburame, Shino's cousin Torune, who was judged to be talented enough to use venomous insects. After all, there was a very real danger of keeping such lethal insects within one's body considering all it took to accidentally kill oneself was a random mutation in a single insect that resulted in a new poison against which the host wasn't immune.

Shino was far from being skilled enough to be considered capable enough to breed such a species himself, but that didn't stop him from getting inspiration from them in his quest to find ways to combine his chakra affinity with his clan's techniques.

And it was this quest that led him to the question of what would happen if he used his kikaichū to not simply transfer his chakra like he would do to refill the reserves of a comrade but instead chakra to which he added his fire nature.

After all, shouldn't it theoretically function similarly to poison? And how did the other person's own affinity play into this? Would this strategy only work against people with a wind affinity, which was weak against fire, or would it work just more effectively on those but still work to a lesser degree against anyone who didn't have a water affinity?

Shino didn't have the opportunity to speak with his father about his theories, much less actually test it, so what better time to do so than the present, right? After getting hit by Kiba's attack, Gouzen must have been in a lot of pain. So much pain, in fact, that the sensation of Shino's surviving kikaichū latching onto his legs beneath his pants and on his back out of his sight didn't even register until it was already too late. By then, all the chakra he had fed to them in advance was already transferred into his system.

Judging from the way he, who Shino was pretty sure had an earth affinity, reacted to it, it certainly did something.

The other man raised his head to look at him from where he kneeled on the ground about fifteen metres in front of him, his head and upper body turning redder by the second. "You little shit!"

Shino blinked, the words sounding oddly distorted to his ears. Now that he thought about it, his vision was even more blurred than just a minute ago, too...

Gouzen was slowly getting to his feet again while using his one good arm to try - and fail - to swat away the insects on his body. "You will pay for this!"

Shino could still make out that his mouth was moving, even if only just, but the words made no sense to him as his body began to feel heavier by the second. Even as Gouzen began to slowly but surely move towards him again, all he could think about was how very tired he felt.

Huh, I was right. This technique does work…

And with that last fleeting thought, Shino finally followed his teammates and drifted into unconsciousness.

Even with the fog of pain and exhaustion setting over his mind, Gouzen still had the mental capacity to feel pure, unadulterated rage at the realization that it was two children with their pet dog and stupid bugs who were responsible for his current state.

At the realization that he had almost lost to them.

It was a disgrace. Shameful and embarrassing. If he still cared about what his family would think about him if they were still alive, he would probably have killed himself to avoid having to face them after this.

However, regardless of how unreasonably close the result was, in the end, he had won. Nobody would have to know about the details of this fight, and he himself could simply forget about it. Never waste a single thought about this day ever again.

He was on the verge of losing consciousness himself, but before that, he would kill these brats. It might be a much less creative death than he would have liked to grant them and less painful for them than they deserved, but this was still preferable to one of them waking up before him and killing him. As long as-

"I would appreciate it if you could keep your hands off my students."

Gouzen froze, and it wasn't because of shock or fear. No, he literally couldn't move no matter how hard he tried. Is this... Genjutsu?!

It was only then that he saw the figure that now stood protectively between him and the Aburame brat.

His sight might be blurry from exhaustion, but he would have recognized these red eyes everywhere.

"You-"

A quick strike to his neck interrupted him before he could utter more than that single word.

Gouzen was unconscious even before his face hit the ground.