Torune is confused. "What did we do wrong?" he asks. "We just want to find Chomei's Guards. How does that make us unworthy of finding them?"
"SILENCE!" orders the farmer. "You ignorant brats need to leave, or I will be forced to kill you."
"Wait!" says Torune, desperately trying to explain himself. "But I'm-!"
"Be quiet!" snaps the farmer. "I don't care about your hollow excuses."
"Stand down," says a quiet voice. "Did you not see what he is carrying?"
The wall of insects drops, revealing a woman in a pink coat and goggles. She is holding Torune's book in her hands. The book is dripping wet, with pages falling out. It is completely ruined.
"They probably stole it," says the farmer.
"This copy comes from the Aburame library," says the woman, her tone remaining quiet and steady. "Both boys are wearing Leaf headbands. Use your brain."
Torune notices a hint of rage in the last sentence and realizes the woman is incredibly angry at the farmer.
"Yes, exactly," says the farmer. "These kids stole it from the Aburame Clan!"
"IDIOT!" the woman shouts, slapping the farmer across the face. "That one," she points to Torune, "is our long overdue Aburame tribute! I heard two boys were poking around the village looking for the guide to take them to the Guards' Village, and came to see what kind of boys they are. I expected you to question them to find out who they are and what they are doing here, not refuse to help them and even attack them! You had ONE JOB!" The woman shakes her gloved finger at the farmer to emphasise her point. "ONE JOB! Honestly! Go back to your cows. I will deal with this."
"Yes, Leader-sama," says the farmer, hanging his head.
"I will speak to you about this again later," says the woman. "Go." she waves him away with a flick of her hand.
The farmer leaves, taking his swarm of insects with him.
"Leader-sama…?" says Torune, staring at the woman. "Are you the leader of Chomei's Guards?"
"Yes I am, little boy," confirms the woman. "What are your names?"
"I am Torune Aburame," says Torune. "This is my best friend, Fu Yamanaka. I have come to train with Chomei's Guards like my clansmen used to before we joined the Hidden Leaf. Fu came along for the fun."
"I see," says the leader, smiling. "Will he be staying for training too? We could use some new blood in our gene pool."
"Well I can't leave Torune by himself," says Fu, grinning. "I'll stay if you'll let me. But what's this about a gene pool?"
"To put it simply, we won't mind if you marry one of our young girls when you grow up," says the leader. "We do have some clans on the outside that send recruits to us sometimes, but, like the Aburame Clan, they are not sending us recruits like they used to, so our young people are having difficulty finding romance."
Fu processes this information then grins. "I'll try not to create too much drama."
"Now Torune," the leader turns to him. "Why did they send you, when they haven't sent anyone in so long?"
"They did not send me," says Torune. "Fu and I found that old book in the library, and I wondered if maybe it will be safer for me to be with Chomei's Guards. My insects are poisonous, you see. I cannot control them properly, and I don't want to accidentally kill anyone close to me."
"Oh really," says the leader, sounding only mildly interested, as if none of this really bothers her. "What are they called?"
"They are called rinkaichu," says Torune.
"I thought so," says the leader. "That won't be a problem. Because, you see," her skin turns purple as a hazy mist of rinkaichu swarm out of her body. "I have the exact same insects."
"Really?" Torune feels like a great weight is lifted from his shoulders at that moment. "Then there is another person it is safe for me to touch?"
The next thing Torune knows, the leader of Chomei's Guards is hugging him. "You poor thing," she says. "When was the last time you hugged anybody?"
"I don't remember," says Torune, a little weirded out. Hugs are nice, though.
Present day.
"So leader just turned up out of nowhere at the last second?" says one of the Guards. "That seems awfully plot convenient."
"Shh, Fourth Wall," says the Leader, shooting the Guard a stern look.
"Oh," says Shino, nodding. "I see. Thank you, Torune. I am glad I know what happened now, because I have been wondering for a while what happened. But why couldn't you tell me about it sooner?"
"We made him keep quiet about it all," says the Leader. "Fu as well. We needed to keep ourselves a secret, so we forbade them from talking about us while in the Leaf."
"And before you ask," says Fu, cheerfully. "I dated sooo many girls from the Guards' Village and the other village, created a LOT of dramas, nearly swore to celibacy and eventually found the right person."
"Yes," says the yellow-coated guard sitting beside Fu. "We're engaged!" she hugs his arm, smiling like a cat with the cream.
"Good for you," says Shino, sighing sadly.
"What's wrong?" asks Fu.
"Never mind," says Shino. He does not want to go around telling people he loves Sasuke, and childhood friends never get married.
"Hey, hey!" says Fuu, urgently. "Are you all finished because I think Torune's flashback solved our problem!"
"What do you mean?" asks Fu, curiously.
"In the cave with the pictographs!" says Fuu excitedly. "It had pictures showing where all the bijuu used to live! Can you remember what Isobu's picture looked like?"
"Well yeah," says Torune, scratching out the picture in the dirt with his finger. "It had a straight line like this and a sort of bowl like this," he draws what looks like a dipper. "Then there was a line here to indicate the surface of the water," he draws a squiggly line at the top of the bowl. "And the Three Tails in the water." Torune draws a round blob with three lines coming out of one end. "And on the land side there was this cave that opened into the lake." Torune draws a horse-shoe shape under the flat line, making the open end connect to the side of the bowl. "Well, it was a lot better than that, and in colour."
"OF COURSE!" the Leader says, facepalming. "We already know Isobu has a favourite lake! We've been looking around it, but we need to be looking under it!"
The next morning, the Guards, Fu, Fuu and Shino head off to Isobu's favourite lake to go for a swim. They walk along the road, not bothering to conceal themselves in any way. Even though they are technically on and S-Rank secret mission, there is no point hiding your group if everyone in the group is a total powerhouse (except Shino, he's still only mildly strong).
About an hour's walk away from the lake, the group comes across a small boy with long greenish hair and a young lady with a spiky blue ponytail. The little boy is staring at some flowers growing by the roadside. "Look, Guren," he says, pointing at one. "This one is a different colour to the rest."
"That's great, Yukimaru," says the young woman, Guren. "We need to keep moving."
The boy, Yukimaru, ignores her. Instead he turns his head to look at Chomei's Guards, Fu, Fuu and Shino. "Hello," he says, smiling. "Why are you all dressed so brightly?"
"To warn people that we are toxic," says the Leader. "If you touch me, a deadly poison will flood your system and you will die."
"Isn't that what bugs do?" says Yukimaru, tipping his head to one side. "The poisonous ones are all brightly coloured?"
"Exactly," nods the Leader.
"Come on, Yukimaru, we need to get moving," says Guren, grabbing the boy's hand and pulling him to his feet.
"But we're not even going anywhere," says Yukimaru.
"Yes we are," argues Guren.
"Where are you headed?" asks Fuu, buzzing over and looking the pair up and down. "We're looking for Isobu's Lake so we can give a message to the Guards. I'm Fuu, it's nice to meet you!" She sticks out her hand for Guren to shake.
Guren gives her an odd look, and Yukimaru shakes Fuu's hand. "Guren says she is taking me to Isobu's Guards," he says, smiling. "But we've been searching for ages and haven't found them."
"Then you can travel with us!" says Fuu, spinning around in midair, her insect wings fluttering. "We know how to find them!"
"Why are you taking this boy to Isobu's Guards?" asks the Leader, obviously trying not to sound suspicious.
"My old leader told me that, in the event of his...her?...whatever, his...death, I must take Yukimaru to Isobu's Guards," explains Guren. "He thinks they will be interested in his ability...my boss also did not want to risk that ability falling into Black Zetsu's hands, and thinks the safest place for him is with Isobu's Guards."
"Well, you'd best stick with us, then," says the Leader.
Guren agrees, and they carry on together. An hour later, the group reaches Isobu's Lake. They explain to Guren that the Guards are located under the lake. While they do so, Fu uses the mind transfer on a fish and swims around the lake, quickly locating the opening in the rocky wall.
To their surprise, Guren creates a ball of pink crystal around the group and carries them down, under the lake to the opening. Yukimaru presses his nose against the side of the crystal sphere to peer out at the lake's inhabitants in fascination. After only a few minutes - a distance none of them would have been able to swim - they reach the opening. Guren guides the crystal sphere through a long tunnel, doing her best to prevent it being smashed against the tunnel walls by the river of water that carries them deeper into the earth. Finally they burst out of the tunnel. The force of the river sends them flying into the air. Below them lies a small town, carved out of rock and earth. Beside the river created by the water from the lake are rows of crops. The cavern is lit by sunlight from cracks in the rock ceiling above, which provides sufficient light for things to grow. The group barely has time to take all this in before someone from below halts their headlong flight by surrounding them in water and bringing them gently to land in the middle of the settlement.
Guren ends her jutsu, and the entire group collapses on the ground, gasping for breath after their wild ride.
The person who saved them, a rather fish-like man who reminds Shino of many Mist ninjas he has met, looks down at them with a bemused smile and says, "What brings all of you here?"
Guren, the first to recover, helps Yukimaru to his feet and says, "This is Yukimaru. I brought him to you because he has the ability to call the Three Tails to himself…"
"That's cool," says the man, patting the pair on their heads, one with each hand. "And the rest of them?" he looks over at Chomei's Guards, Fu, Fuu and Shino.
The Leader of Chomei's Guards stands up and introduces herself. "I am the Leader of Chomei's Guards, these are the rest of the Guards, our imported breeding stock-"
"HEY!" protests Fu indignantly.
"One of my guards' little brother," continues the Leader, ignoring Fu. "And Chomei's jinchuuriki."
"My name is Fuu!" says Fuu, raising a hand to indicate she is the jinchuuriki.
"We come bearing a message for Isobu's Guards," finishes the Leader of Chomei's Guards.
"You're speaking to the leader," says the man. "What is the message?"
"The message is from a group called Akatsuki," says the Leader of Chomei's Guards. "It is this: Akatsuki knows where Isobu is, but they will not tell anyone except his guards because an ancient, malevolent evil might learn his location and capture him."
"Are you talking about Black Zetsu?" says Guren. "The one I'm supposed to be hiding Yukimaru from?"
"Yes," confirms the Leader of Chomei's Guards. "We have arranged to meet Akatsuki in the Leaf once we have found you."
"EVERYONE!" the Leader of Isobu's Guards throws his fists in the air and shouts so loudly his words ring around the cavern. "WE'RE GOING TO FIND ISOBU! GUARDS, GATHER YOUR GEAR! WE LEAVE AT DAWN!"