Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.
Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), some moderate Dumbledore bashing (he's more manipulative than evil but mostly just stubborn), and who knows what else.
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 1: Aburame Satoshi
It took four days for Shibi to adopt the green eyed child his swarm had found in the middle of the forest.
The first day was spent at the hospital, where Kushina helped the child get over his fear of medical jutsu by allowing the medic to use a few simple diagnostic jutsu on her to show that they didn't hurt; all the while explaining what was happening to the child in his native language. After that, the child hesitantly allowed them to be used on him but only so long as he was protectively cradled in Shibi's arms; the boy refusing to allow the medics to pick him up or Shibi to set him down on the examination table. By the time they finished healing him, giving him a complete physical (including running a battery of diagnostic tests and taking full body x-rays), and administering the necessary immunizations; the orphanage had closed for the day (conveniently enough) and Shibi took him back to the Aburame compound where he was doted on by both the Aburame Clan members and their Kikaichu for a second night.
The second day was a rather difficult day as Shibi had taken the child to the Hyuuga to check on his chakra network to insure that there would be no problems introducing the Kikaichu to the child's system and because he was concerned over the fact that the child's chakra signature felt so weak. After his swarm of destruction bugs had been feeding from the child for nearly four days straight, it came as quite a shock when it was revealed that the child's chakra network had been completely shut down and his chakra coils severely atrophied. Apparently, whatever energy the Kikaichu were attracted to was not chakra; which explained the odd behavior of the bugs since chakra doesn't tend to make the bugs drunk whereas the energy they fed on from the child did.
Reopening the child's chakra pathways and tenketsu had been a long, drawn out process filled with much pain for the child. Thankfully, Kushina had again accompanied them and patiently explained to the child what was happening and why it hurt. Once the process was over, the child's chakra flowed freely (if sluggishly) once more. The Hyuuga then advised Shibi to bring the child by at least once a week for the next two months so they could be certain that the child's network didn't collapse a second time.
The third day was spent bouncing between the Hospital, the orphanage, and the Hokage's office as Shibi filled out and filed the necessary paperwork to adopt the boy; something he did with the full blessing of his father, his fiancée, and his clan. Inoichi spent several hours with the pair, providing Shibi with the child's birth name, his birth date, information about his parents, and the details about his former guardians. Once the application had been completed and filed, Shibi took it straight to the Hokage and the council to get them to sign off on it (which they did with little fuss after a bit of persuasion from Sarutobi and Aburame Shoichi – Shibi's father and the head of the Aburame Clan).
Legally, the newly named Aburame Satoshi was Shibi's son by the end of the third day; but he wouldn't officially be an Aburame until he had the Kikaichu implanted into his body. Now, normally, an Aburame is born with a single queen already inside of his or her body as his or her mother's swarm lays the queen's egg inside of the fetus around the eighth month of gestation. The queen then attracts additional Kikaichu once the child is born and as the child ages his swarm grows with him. Because Satoshi wasn't born an Aburame, he wasn't born with a queen with which to start his colony and therefore would have to have several eggs implanted within his chakra network in the hopes that at least one of them would hatch out a viable queen.
The process of implanting the eggs was mostly painless as the saliva of a mature Kikaichu acted like an anesthetic and felt rather like a mosquito bite or a deep uncomfortable itch once the effect wore off. Surprisingly, the newly named Satoshi didn't mind the process at all; in fact he remained silent the entire time as five queens burrowed beneath his skin and bored their way to his chakra coils to lay their eggs. Three of the five queens had been selected from his father's swarm while the final two had come from his grandfather's in order to establish a familial bond between Satoshi's future swarm and his adoptive family's swarm.
Unknown to the Aburame overseeing the procedure (including Satoshi's new father and grandfather), only one of the Kikaichu queens laid her eggs within Satoshi's chakra network. The other four actually laid their eggs within Satoshi's magical core, which ran through the center of Satoshi's chakra coils behind his heart and along the length of his spine; completely separate from the chakra network and the reason his tenketsu had been closed off to begin with since chakra and magic usually can't coincide within the same body (not that any of the shinobi within Konoha could have known that).
Once the queens had reemerged, the entire Aburame Clan celebrated long into the night to welcome little Satoshi to their family. Kushina, Inoichi, and Shibi's two teammates were there as well since they'd all helped make Satoshi's adoption possible. It took a while for Satoshi to understand what was going on but once Kushina explained that Shibi had adopted him, he accepted his new family and name without the expected fuss. Of course, being just five months over two years old helped since he hadn't really had enough time to develop a cynical side. The fact that the Aburame Clan had treated him like family from the moment Shibi first brought him home played a large part in his ready acceptance as well.
Shibi spent the two days after the implantation ceremony, the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of November, bonding with his new son. He introduced Satoshi to his future mother (the lovely Mayumi), purchased a small assortment of clothes and toys for him, and started his education. To start with, Shibi continued the Japanese lessons that he'd begun the day after he'd pulled the child out of the holly bush with the help of a few Japanese primers. Satoshi picked up the language quickly; living up to Inoichi's prediction about the child being a genius due to his photographic memory. Shibi also worked with Satoshi on how to properly stretch and exercise his body in preparation for the day he joined the academy; turning the exercises into a game in order to hold the boy's attention.
On the twenty-sixth, when they returned to the Hyuuga compound to have Satoshi's chakra coils checked; they learned that his coils were rapidly starting to shut down again. This, of course, sparked concern in the new father since it was common knowledge that a person couldn't survive without a chakra network (the young Aburame Heir not aware that a wizard's magical core was meant to replace the chakra network in those born with magic). That led to Shibi scheduling daily therapy sessions with the Hyuuga so they could channel chakra through Satoshi's network to keep it active and encourage his coils to strengthen and grow.
On top of that, Shibi was taught how to circulate a thread of his own chakra through Satoshi's coils in order to help reinforce the results of the therapy sessions. It would take several days for the eighteen year old to learn how to consistently form a small enough chakra thread so as not to overload Satoshi's weakened coils with too much foreign chakra; though he'd only be able to hold the thread for an hour and twenty minutes at a time due to the size of his chakra reserves and his level of control. Still, that was more than long enough to prevent the child's coils from shutting down once more. Furthermore, it was believed that once the Kikaichu eggs within the boy's chakra coils hatched that their presence would help to stabilize the child's coils.
The Hyuuga had brought up the possibility that Satoshi would never be a shinobi because of his faulty chakra coils; hinting that the child would always be weak and sickly (if he lived past his third birthday). However, Shibi refused to believe it; he could see the strength in his adopted son and knew he would one day be a great shinobi if given the chance. He would not give up on his son and as such he approached his teammates with his dilemma.
After three days of deliberation, the three of them approached the Hokage in order to be reassigned; Taji being transferred to the Hospital, Genma going to the academy as an instructor (as a cover to draw attention away from his induction into the AnBu Crops), and Shibi being transferred to the Torture and Interrogation Department as a tracker (whose main duties would be the capture and retrieval of escaped prisoners or potential threats within the village).
While Shibi would have preferred staying on a regular team, he felt he needed to be closer to home in order to raise his son and while he had no interest in torturing prisoners, he was well aware that there were many people out there that were terrified enough of bugs for him to be of use in the T and I Department above and beyond his ability to hunt down and recapture an escaped prisoner. The fact that the job also presented less risk than taking missions out of the village (due to the war between Konoha and Iwa heating up) and provided a steady income didn't hurt either.
The first month he was with the T and I Department, Shibi spent in training; learning the department's rules and regulations and going over department protocol. Each morning he'd be up by five o'clock to make breakfast for himself and his son (Satoshi always waking up whenever he did without fail), drop his son off with his father directly after the meal, and be at headquarters by six-thirty. He'd then spend most of the day listening to lectures, skimming through old reports, and reading through dusty old scrolls on departmental procedures.
At three-fifteen he'd put everything away, gather up his notes, and head home to pick up Satoshi from his father's house where he'd spend around a half an hour listening to his father give a summary of Satoshi's day. The father and son duo would head to the Hyuuga compound where one of the branch members of the Hyuuga Clan would spend roughly an hour strengthening Satoshi's chakra network in hopes that his coils would start expanding instead of shrinking. After they were finished at the Hyuuga's, the two would head home where Mayumi joined them for supper before they spent the rest of the evening bonding as a family; the adults playing a few rounds of Shogi or Go while cuddling with Satoshi and simultaneously working on Satoshi's Japanese.
Satoshi's days paralleled his father's day in many ways. After Shibi dropped him off with Shoichi, Satoshi would spend a half an hour stretching under the watchful eyes of his grandfather. He would then be allowed to play for an hour before Kushina arrived to help him with his Japanese and English lessons on those days that the young kunoichi wasn't out on a mission. Originally, the language lessons weren't going to include English but it was decided that Satoshi should not lose such a useful skill. Satoshi thrived on the challenge of learning the two languages simultaneously. The fact that he was quite taken with Kushina because of her red hair (which was almost the same shade of red as his mother's hair) meant he that he didn't lose focus as quickly as most young children would.
After his English and Japanese lessons were over around nine, Satoshi would spend another half hour learning the basic taijutsu stances in order to improve his balance before being sent to play and burn off any excess energy that had built up over the course of the morning. Lunch was usually a lesson in proper etiquette as Shoichi lectured him on proper posture, manners, and the importance of controlling one's emotions at all times (each day's lecture exactly the same as the day before until it was clear he'd learned the lesson being taught). Most of the words went right over Satoshi's head in the beginning because he hadn't yet grasped the language well enough but by the end of the third recitation he'd memorized the lecture (the newness of the Japanese language slightly hindering his recall at first) even if he wasn't certain what it all meant.
Immediately after lunch, Satoshi would take a two hour nap to rest his young body. He was usually awake by quarter after two and would then spend the rest of the afternoon listening to his grandfather tell stories about the Clan's history while playing with the many Kikaichu that still flocked to him on a regular basis. The highlight of Satoshi's day was the moment Shibi arrived to pick him up; his entire face would light up and his bright green eyes would dance with pure joy as he rushed to greet his new father. Satoshi would contentedly cling to Shibi while Shibi and Shoichi discussed their days with Satoshi occasionally interjecting a comment or two when one of them addressed him before he shyly kissed his grandfather on the cheek to say goodbye as Shibi took him to his afternoon appointment.
On Tuesday, December seventh, exactly two weeks after Satoshi was formally inducted into the Aburame Clan, the Kikaichu eggs implanted in Satoshi's chakra coils and in his magical core finally hatched. He'd been in the middle of his language lessons with Kushina when he suddenly stiffened and pressed his little hands to his heart while the Kikaichu that had been crawling over him immediately dispersed. Shoichi, who'd been monitoring the lesson, immediately asked Kushina to fetch Shibi as he gathered Satoshi into his arms and tenderly rocked the distraught child. Shibi and Kushina returned just in time to see the first Kikaichu larvae emerge from Satoshi's body, the tiny worm-like creature boring its way out through a small hole beside his left earlobe just above his jawbone.
Satoshi reached for Shibi with one hand the moment he saw his father, more than a little confused about what was happening to him and why it hurt so much. The pain stemming from the newly hatched larvae boring their way out of his magical core and chakra coils (the larvae not having the same ability to numb the pain of their passage like the adult beetles could). With Kushina's help, Shibi explained that the eggs the Kikaichu had laid in him were hatching and that once they'd finished the pain would be gone. Satoshi accepted the explanation and the reminder that he would eventually have thousands of bugs living inside of his body and simply clung to his father over the course of the next two hours as the larvae continued to hatch.
When the ordeal was over, Shoichi and Shibi counted a total of one hundred and sixty-six larvae (little over half of the number of eggs that had been laid); one hundred and twenty-eight of which were pale blue in color and twice the size of normal Kikaichu larvae and the remaining thirty-eight were the standard yellow and of average size.
Satoshi thought they were cool while Kushina was a little nauseous after witnessing the process. Once it was confirmed that all of the larvae were healthy; Shibi used his Kikaichu to encourage the larvae to return to Satoshi's body where they would be safe from harm. The two and a half year old ended up sleeping the rest of the morning and all through lunch; his small body exhausted from the stress and pain of the hatching. Shibi stayed until Satoshi fell asleep and thanked his father for sending for him so he could be there for his son during the hatching (a momentous occasion) before returning to work; taking a small detour to let the Hyuuga know that Satoshi would not be up to attending his daily therapy session that afternoon due to the hatching.
Over the course of the next nine days, Satoshi's lessons revolved around the life stages of the Kikaichu to prepare him for the day his larvae entered the pupa stage. Three days after entering the pupa stage, the new Kikaichu beetles would emerge from the pupa shell and Satoshi's Kikaichu would bond with him; giving him the ability to understand and eventually direct the tiny bugs (with training). Satoshi devoured those lessons with unfeigned fascination; his intense green eyes drinking in the various scrolls and pictures that Shoichi used to aide in the lessons with Kushina providing translations for him as needed. By the time the sixteenth of December rolled around and his larvae began to pupate, Satoshi had learned everything there was to learn about the life cycles of the Kikaichu; including the various types of Kikaichu that existed and their different abilities and the differences between the queens and the drones.
During the next three days, Satoshi found it nearly impossible to sit still and was quite often vibrating with suppressed excitement as he waited for his Kikaichu to emerge. He somehow managed to pay attention to his various lessons but it was a near thing and, if not for his eidetic memory, he probably would have missed more than ninety percent of what he'd been taught during those three days. When asked why he was so excited, Satoshi answered that he was looking forward to having little friends that could go everywhere with him.
That simple statement shocked and saddened Satoshi's father and grandfather as they hadn't realized that the child longed to have friends to quite that extent (their clan's close association with bugs typically meaning they were treated almost like outcasts which meant they usually sought companionship inside of the clan). Unfortunately, because their clan was so small (less than thirty individuals in total) and Satoshi the only member under the age of ten, there was no one within the compound with whom he could play. That meant they would have to look outside of the clan for the social interaction that the child craved which meant exposing him to the risk of rejection due to the bugs he now hosted inside of him.
Knowing how sensitive Satoshi could be to any negative interactions (a lingering side effect of the neglect and verbal abuse he'd suffered at the hands of his aunt and uncle), they decided to wait until spring to venture forth to find him a playmate in order to give him plenty of time to adjust to his new life. That would also give him time to grow comfortable with the various individuals he interacted with now, which consisted of the entire clan (including the two youngest teens and one pre-teen of the clan), Shibi's former teammates (Genma and Taji), Kushina, and the handful of Hyuuga branch members that performed his chakra therapy every day.
On the morning of the nineteenth, Shibi woke up an hour earlier than usual to the sound of his adopted son giggling beneath the covers. When he lifted the blanket to see what was going on, he found Satoshi playing with exactly one hundred and twenty-eight larger than normal Kikaichu that were a dark, midnight blue instead of the usual black. The not so tiny bugs had broken free of their pupa shells just a short while earlier and their bonding had woken the young boy. Shibi smiled a rare smile as he shared his son's happiness and he left the little one to get acquainted with his tiny swarm while he got up to take a shower and make breakfast. He was thankful that he'd taken the day off that day so he could spend the entire day helping his son adjust to the newly formed bond.
When he called his son down to eat nearly an hour and a half later, Shibi was mildly surprised to see an additional thirty-eight Kikaichu cupped in Satoshi's hands while the original one hundred and twenty-eight crawled through his hair and over his face. The new group was half the size of the first group and the normal black in color and the eighteen year old Aburame was reminded of the differences in the larvae that had hatched out earlier that month and wondered why the two groups were so different in appearance when they had all been laid by the same type of Kikaichu. Shibi made a mental note to speak to his father about the matter again before he pushed the oddness out of his mind as he focused on his son and the newly hatched destruction bugs.
"Can you hear them speaking to you now, little bug?" Shibi asked once Satoshi had settled into his chair.
"Hai, tousan," Satoshi replied with a smile as he herded the thirty-eight normal bugs out of his hand so he could eat. "Is more easy understand they now; not like before."
"It is much easier to understand them now," Shibi corrected gently, waiting for Satoshi to repeat the corrections before continuing the conversation. "I'm glad to hear that you are not having any trouble communicating with your new swarm. Are you having any trouble keeping track of everything they tell you?"
"Not now. Was weird first. We late today?"
"Are we running late today… would be the correct way to ask that question and no, we are not running late; I'm not working today. I took the day off so that I could spend it with you."
"Really?"
"Truly, little bug," Shibi replied with another smile over the excitement he could hear in his son's voice. "I wanted to be here when your Kikaichu emerged because your first bonding is a special occasion. I just wasn't expecting them to arrive before the dawn."
Satoshi giggled over that admission even as he beamed over the news that he'd get to spend the entire day with his father; a rare treat since Shibi joined the T and I Department nearly a month earlier. After breakfast, Shibi spent the rest of the morning patiently teaching Satoshi how to train his Kikaichu to obey him. This mostly involved Satoshi telling the bugs to hide either in his hair, his clothes, or inside of his body or calling them back out from their hiding places. They started with verbal orders before they progressed to unspoken orders once it was clear that the toddler was quickly getting the hang of directing the bugs. After Satoshi got the hang of ordering his Kikaichu silently, Shibi had him take a break and the two of them headed over to Shoichi's house so Satoshi could show his newly emerged swarm to his grandfather.
While at his grandfather's, Satoshi quietly flipped through the various children's books that used to belong to his father while his father and grandfather quietly discussed the strange differences in Satoshi's Kikaichu. It was while they were examining one specimen that they discovered that the larger Kikaichu had no real interest in eating chakra (though they would if ordered to). That brought up the old debate as to what the clan's Kikaichu had been after when they'd been drawn to Satoshi prior to his chakra pathways being reopened.
Which had them once again speculating on the possibility that the two and a half year old had some type of internal energy that was not chakra that had similar properties to chakra but was as different from chakra as sake was from water. That particular analogy stuck as the Kikaichu who fed off that other energy (except for the one hundred and twenty-eight hatched from Satoshi's magical core) still tended to act drunk if they stuffed themselves on the foreign energy (though the normal Kikaichu would build up a resistance to the alcohol-like nature of Satoshi's second energy over time).
After a long discussion, it was agreed that the confirmation of Satoshi's other internal energy would be treated as a clan secret. They also agreed that explaining the concept of a clan secret to Satoshi would have to wait until he was just a bit older; neither of them realizing that Satoshi had heard and understood the entire conversation through the Kikaichu they'd been examining. Satoshi was thankfully too young to be angry or hurt over the notion of his father withholding information from him, otherwise he might have had a temper tantrum.
The discussion was soon forgotten though as Shibi and Shoichi introduced Satoshi to the concept of playing hide and seek with his Kikaichu as a mock training session to further acclimatize Satoshi to the newly formed bond. Satoshi loved every minute of the game, his giggles often giving him away to the two adults whenever it was his turn to hide.
Lunch that day was an impromptu party with more than half of the clan attending to celebrate the emergence of Satoshi's first swarm. The three older children of the clan (ages ten, thirteen, and fourteen) indulged Satoshi in playing a game of hide and seek followed by a game of tag after the meal even though the two Genin and one Chuunin hadn't played such childish games since obtaining their hitai-ate. Satoshi nearly pouted when Shibi told him it was time for them to go but he perked right up when Shibi told him they were going to take a trip into the clan's special green house to gather wild Kikaichu to add to Satoshi's swarm (Shibi not wishing to take the young toddler to the Forty-Fourth Training Grounds where the clan normally augmented their swarms).
Shibi couldn't help but smile over his son's antics as the small child truly loved the bugs; a rarity in Konoha where most children were raised to avoid or loathe bugs because they were believed to carrying diseases (which some in fact did) or be dangerous (any poisonous or venomous bug or insect).
When they reached the greenhouse, Shibi asked Satoshi to bring out all of the queens that had hatched and the older Aburame was a bit surprised to find there were a total of seven queens when he expected no more than three due to Satoshi's young age and atrophied chakra network. He quickly noted that five of the queens were from the larger, blue Kikaichu; which made sense due to the fact that the alternate energy inside of Satoshi was supposedly limitless (not that it was since Satoshi could suffer from magical exhaustion, it was just far more abundant than his chakra at this point). Gathering up seven small, clay pots (smaller versions of the gourd he usually carried on his back), Shibi had Satoshi coax one queen into each pot before the two of them entered the greenhouse together.
Inside of the greenhouse was a manmade jungle filled with seemingly thousands of different species of bugs and Satoshi stared around in awe as Shibi led him into the heart of the greenhouse. Settling down in a small clearing, Shibi set the seven potted queens down in a semicircle in front of Satoshi and encouraged him to send the rest of his Kikaichu to join the queens. As the destruction bugs trooped from Satoshi's body to the seven pots (the two different types clearly gravitating towards the queens of the same type) wild Kikaichu began drawing closer.
Shibi paid close attention to the types of Kikaichu that were drawn by Satoshi's queens, taking particular note of the venomous types in the event that any of them claimed a queen since few Aburame could host the deadly Kikaichu inside of their bodies (which is why Shibi carried his venomous swarm on his back in a gourd and why Satoshi's first swarm expansion required the queens to be segregated outside of his body). To his relief none of the venomous bugs seemed interested in joining his son's swarm as they eventually drifted off.
Two hours later, when they emerged from the greenhouse, Satoshi was the proud bearer of four different types of Kikaichu; the common type (which were good for tracking and offensive attacks), a burrowing type (often used for infiltration and associated with the earth element), a water type (good at tracking in wet weather and associated with the water element), and a microscopic wingless type (excellent for information gathering as they were near impossible to see). The distribution of the various types between the two distinct colonies that Satoshi had hatched was curious as well; the normal appearing chakra Kikaichu having drawn the common Kikaichu and the burrowing Kikaichu while the larger, blue Kikaichu had drawn all four types – giving Satoshi three tracking colonies (two associated with the larger magical Kikaichu), two burrowing colonies (one each for magical and chakra Kikaichu), and one each of the water and wingless colonies (both of which were associated with his magical Kikaichu) which hinted that Satoshi had a strong affinity towards earth with a secondary affinity towards water.
Shibi carefully sealed and labeled each pot with information on what type of colony was inside; the queens would need at least twenty-four hours to bond with their new drones due to this being the first time his son added wild bugs to his swarm. Satoshi was torn between feeling sad that his bugs would not be with him for a full day but happy because his swarm had now more than tripled in size. The seven new colonies were then taken to Shoichi's house (since Satoshi would most likely be at his grandfather's home when the bonding was complete) before Shibi took him over to the Hyuuga compound for his daily chakra therapy session.
The young Hyuuga that attended to Satoshi's chakra coils that day had good news for the father and son pair; Satoshi's chakra network appeared to be stabilizing as the degradation of his coils between sessions was only half what it usually was. It appeared the introduction of the Kikaichu would be just as helpful as Shibi anticipated they would be and the heir to the Aburame Clan thanked his ancestors for leading him to his son as he still believed the child would have died without a chakra network.
The pair returned home in high spirits that evening and Satoshi was especially affectionate; willingly cuddling with Mayumi for the first time without any encouragement needed from Shibi. Shibi felt content as he watched his adopted son and future wife bonding and he looked forward to the day when they truly became a family (his wedding date still over a year in the future due to clan traditions and the betrothal contract his father had signed with Mayumi's father).
The rest of December passed by in a blur as Shibi finished his training and preparations began for Ōmisoka and Oshōgatsu (Year-end festival/fair and New Year's Day). Satoshi in particular was fascinated by the preparations for the Year-end Fair since he had no earlier memories with which to compare it to. The two and a half year old could often be found seemingly lost in thought as he watched various clan members putting up decorations or preparing various dishes for both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
In truth, Satoshi was focusing his attention on his Kikaichu as he often sent them out to take in everything that was going on inside of the compound and on rare occasions outside of the compound. The Kikaichu opened up an endless number of opportunities for the young genius to learn about the culture of his new family and the village he'd found himself in. With the help of his Kikaichu in conjunction with his photographic memory, Satoshi's grasp of spoken Japanese (which had already been fairly high for his age) sky rocketed as the tiny bugs snooped through dozens of books and scrolls and eavesdropped on various conversations.
When Shibi discovered that Satoshi was using his bugs to listen to other people's conversations, he sat his son down and explained that it was wrong to invade other people's privacy like that. It was the first time Satoshi had gotten in trouble, though he was not exactly punished since he hadn't known any better. Satoshi apologized before asking when it was okay to allow his Kikaichu to eavesdrop and if it was alright if his bugs read through the books and scrolls in the public library. That of course led to the revelation that Satoshi was quickly learning to read both kanji and romaji at a phenomenal rate thanks to the help of his destruction bugs.
Shibi had known Satoshi was smart (Inoichi had warned him after all) but he hadn't really expected him to adapt so quickly to the bond with his Kikaichu to the point where he could collect information from multiple sources and use it to teach himself how to read in addition to improving his grasp of spoken Japanese. Shibi compromised with Satoshi; his destruction bugs could browse the books in the library on weekends as long as they stuck to the educational and the children's sections. During the week, Satoshi was to focus entirely on his lessons with his grandfather and Kushina and practice keeping his Kikaichu contained within his body to avoid the temptation to eavesdrop.
Inoichi had a good laugh over the entire thing when Shibi told him what had happened; the two of them quickly bonding as friends as they often worked together in the T and I Department now that Shibi had finished his departmental training. That was also the day that Inoichi finally revealed what he'd found in the child's mind the day he'd viewed Satoshi's memories; telling Shibi how the kid had actually spoken to him within his mind and how Satoshi's mind had taken on the appearance of the ruined nursery from the night his parents had died.
Shibi was only mildly surprised by the revelation, having quickly grown used to his adopted son seemingly pulling off the impossible. They discussed the various reasons for the differences with Shibi silently thinking it had something to do with the mysterious energy Satoshi had that was not chakra while Inoichi verbally expressed his belief that it had something to do with the child's eidetic memory; in truth it was a mixture of both.
New Year's Day came and went and Satoshi continued to improve health wise. He was still rather short when compared to other children his age but he'd at least filled out some when compared to how scrawny he'd been when Shibi first found him. His chakra coils had finally stabilized to the point where they no longer tended to shut down if left alone for days at a time but they were also not growing. If Satoshi had been the child of a civilian it would not have been a big deal but as the child of a shinobi adopted into one of the well known shinobi clans it presented a problem because if his chakra network never grew, then he'd never be able to use any of the family jutsu beyond the basics.
Now, Shibi had nothing against civilians and never looked down on those who chose not to become shinobi but he instinctively knew that his adopted son's life would one day depend upon him being able to defend himself. He didn't know how he knew but he'd long since learned to trust his instincts and his instincts were telling him that Satoshi would not survive without those skills. Shibi's instincts therefore led him to begin teaching Satoshi how to recognize and mold his chakra far earlier than most children learned. Shoichi didn't question the reasons behind starting the child's training early, the current Aburame Clan Head trusted his youngest son's instincts, and often expanded upon the chakra lessons while Shibi was at work.
They started out by teaching Satoshi how to meditate to find the spiritual and physical energy inside of him. In the beginning, Satoshi had trouble because he almost always found his magic instead; which was a veritable maelstrom when compared to the calmer spiritual and eager physical energy that made up his chakra. To get passed that, the older two Aburame would have to guide the young boy using their chakra until he could find his chakra coils on his own. The next step, once he could touch the two energies, was to practice combining them to form chakra.
Once again his magic tended to interfere with the process; the wild energy seemingly having a life of its own when compared to chakra. In order to get around the interference, they moved the lessons into the greenhouse where the wild Kikaichu could feast on the wild energy and reduce the levels of the energy present in Satoshi's body which allowed him to draw upon his chakra without any interference. Winter was nearly over by the time Satoshi got the hang of pulling on his chakra and the next step was for him to be able to pull on his chakra consistently even in the presence of the chaotic energy that coexisted with his physical and spiritual energy (though just barely as his magic and chakra were constantly struggling for dominance against each other).
In addition to his chakra lessons, Satoshi was introduced to simple math and Konoha's history to help keep his mind occupied since Shibi and Shoichi quickly learned that a bored Satoshi was a troublesome Satoshi. He didn't play pranks or anything like that but he did tend to get into things he shouldn't (often with the help of his Kikaichu) or wander off to explore places that he did not have permission to enter when he was bored. One such incident had seen the curious child ending up in the clan's research facility after he'd somehow managed to bypass the barrier seal that had been designed to prevent unauthorized entry into the building.
Shibi was pleased that his son felt comfortable enough to show such natural curiosity but couldn't help but miss the days when Satoshi was content to simply sit by his or his father's side. Once the weather began warming up as spring drew near, Shibi began taking Satoshi out to the village parks to introduce him to other children his age. That didn't work out quite as well as he'd hoped it would because Satoshi was exceedingly leery and suspicious of the children his age (he clearly still remembered his cousin constantly pinching and kicking him) but at least he found enjoyment playing on the park equipment.
On April eighth, Kushina was asked to watch over Satoshi for the day as nearly the entire Aburame Clan had been called on to deal with several war-related missions outside of the village and Shoichi was needed for a council meeting; leaving no clan member available to watch over the toddler. Kushina didn't mind and Satoshi considered her something of an older sister after the six months of language lessons she'd been giving to him. The sixteen year old kunoichi took the not quite three year old with her when she went to help Minato train the Genin team he'd been assigned almost a year earlier. The meeting between Satoshi and Team Minato got off to a very rocky start when the nineteen year old Jounin in charge of the team teased Kushina about dragging a child along to a training session; telling the hot tempered kunoichi that she was getting soft.
Satoshi took offense on Kushina's behalf and kicked Minato in the shin to the amusement of Kushina and one of the Genin. Things seemed fairly tame after that as Kushina introduced Satoshi to Namikaze Minato (the Jounin he kicked), Hatake Kakashi (a rather standoffish, gray haired Chuunin), Uchiha Obito (a very boisterous and friendly Genin and the one who'd laughed when Satoshi kicked Minato), and Nohara Rin (the other Genin on the team and a rather sweet kunoichi that found Satoshi adorable). Satoshi was then left in the care of Obito while Kushina and Minato trained with Kakashi and Rin. Satoshi got along with Obito right from the start; the playful eleven year old reminding Satoshi of a man he knew only as Padfoot.
Obito played rock, paper, scissors (after teaching the toddler how to play) and chatted unceasingly with Satoshi for nearly half an hour before he traded places with Rin. Satoshi was less trusting of Rin at first but he eventually warmed up to her when she began entertaining him with fairytales and fables; the young kunoichi was a natural with children and Satoshi absolutely loved learning new things. He pouted when after another half an hour she switched places with Kakashi as she'd been right in the middle of the tale of the Rabbit in the Moon.
He immediately disliked Kakashi as the standoffish boy constantly made disparaging comments under his breath about Rin being weak and Obito being an idiot. Satoshi tried to kick him in the shin as well but Kakashi was rather quick to notice and moved out of the way and so Satoshi resorted to insulting Kakashi in both English and Japanese which frustrated the older prodigy since he didn't understand half the insults. When Obito switched back with Kakashi, Satoshi was glad to see the ten year old go and he didn't hesitate to tell Obito that Kakashi was mean. That of course drew Minato's attention as Rin was finished with her training at the same time (her stamina currently half that of the two boys).
Minato explained that Kakashi just didn't know how to deal with kids and Satoshi stared up at him for a minute before telling him that the ten year old had been insulting Rin and Obito not him and went on to state that the gray-haired boy probably always picked on the other two. That surprised Minato; he knew Kakashi didn't exactly get along with his teammates but he hadn't expected the not-quite three year old to pick up on that after knowing the three teens for less than two hours. Once Kakashi was done sparring with Kushina, the two Genins and one Chuunin were set to working on chakra control exercises under the watchful eyes of Minato while Satoshi began working on pushing chakra through his chakra network under Kushina's supervision.
All four members of Team Minato were a bit surprised when they noticed the toddler molding chakra and Obito groaned and mumbled a half hearted complaint under his breath about meeting yet another prodigy. Kushina was quick to explain to the others about how Satoshi's chakra network had been on the verge of collapse since it was common knowledge among the shinobi of the village due to the Hyuuga and the Aburame clans openly discussing the problem frequently in the presence of other shinobi. Minato, of course, immediately realized the implications and shushed his team when they began speculating on what it meant; telling them that he'd explain it to them later. Training resumed at that point and Satoshi was left to finish his exercises in relative peace.
By the end of the training session, Satoshi had fallen asleep curled up next to Kushina and therefore missed saying goodbye to Rin and Obito. The redhead then delivered the sleeping toddler to Shoichi along with a report of how well the child had gotten along with most of Minato's team. That revelation would eventually lead to Shoichi and Shibi submitting the occasional D ranked mission entailing babysitting the growing toddler with a whispered request to make certain Team Minato or one of the three teams with an Aburame on it was assigned to carry out said missions. Minato, after meeting with Shibi, gladly saw to it that his team was always assigned that particular mission when it came up; providing they were in the village and one of the teams that had the three youngest Aburame (not counting Satoshi) on them didn't snag it first.
Those missions served three purposes; they allowed Satoshi to become familiar with some of the shinobi who would one day be his superiors and potential teammates, they gave Satoshi a chance to socialize with others outside of the clan, and they slowly helped Satoshi to grow comfortable meeting new people. Satoshi was friendly with the young Aburame shinobi and their teammates but he quickly became attached to Obito as the mischievous and perpetually happy Uchiha filled the void in Satoshi's heart due to his missing godfather (not that Satoshi knew Padfoot as such). He remained fairly distant with Kakashi, going so far as to ignore anything the gray haired teen ordered him to do, right up until Kakashi summoned his ninken for the first time in Satoshi's presence.
It was the appearance of Buru (a large black bulldog) that thawed Satoshi's attitude around mid-May. The moment he saw the large dog's back he immediately thought it was Padfoot (much like that first time he'd mistaken Kushina for his mother) and he'd raced up and thrown his arms around the ninken and babbled off in English about how much he'd missed him. There was a tense moment among the preteens as Buru growled at the unexpected if friendly attack but Kakashi was quick to order the large ninken to calm down. It was about that time that Satoshi finally got a good look at Buru's face and his happy countenance crumbled as he realized he hadn't found Padfoot.
The three young shinobi were then at a complete loss as Satoshi began bawling for the first time ever in their presence; they'd seen him happy, they'd seen him serious, and they'd seen him irritated but they'd never before seen him break down and cry. Thinking that maybe Buru had scared the kid when he growled, Kakashi released the summons only for Satoshi to start crying harder and louder. In the end, it took summoning all three of his current ninken partners to calm the toddler. It was the still puppyish Bisuke that managed to draw the child out of his grief by licking his face. Satoshi remained subdued for the duration of the mission though, often crying silently as he stared at Buru with haunted eyes and clung to Bisuke.
Satoshi remained withdrawn for well over a week after that, his usual boundless energy and ready smiles missing. His growing depression worried Shibi as Satoshi had never been quite so despondent (not even when he had first been found abandoned in the forest). Eventually, Satoshi was slowly drawn out of his depression by the familiarity of his day to day routine and after a few days his previous despondency was nothing but a memory. The only marked change in his behavior was the cessation of his battle of wills with Kakashi as he stopped giving the ten year old the cold shoulder; though he still didn't like it when the gray haired Chuunin insulted Obito or Rin.
By Satoshi's third birthday, the small toddler had a good grasp on how to form chakra out of his spiritual and physical energy and his lessons progressed to include the various hand seals that were used to mold chakra in order to form various jutsu. He wasn't actually learning any techniques yet, just the basics of manipulating his chakra in preparation for learning how to perform a jutsu. He was also learning how to shift his chakra through his network to specific locations instead of just flooding his entire network with chakra. To help him learn how to pool his chakra, Satoshi was introduced to the leaf concentration exercise where he was required to hold a leaf to his forehead with nothing but chakra.
It took him about three weeks to manage to stick a leaf to his head for a full ten seconds. The next goal was to hold the leaf in place for a full minute. Once he achieved that, he would go on to learn how to hold a leaf to the back of his hands, his elbows, his nose, his bellybutton, the back of his neck, the middle of his back, on both sides of his knees, the tops of his feet, and finally the soles of his feet. The moment he could hold a leaf in place for a full minute in each one of those locations, he was required to learn how to hold two leaves in place in two different locations at the same time; effectively learning how to split his focus. About that time he also began learning basic katas to go with the taijutsu stances he'd learned along with a series of exercises geared to slowly increase his speed, stamina, and flexibility.
Around the one year anniversary of Satoshi's adoption into the Aburame Clan, Shoichi and Shibi began discussing the possibility of sending Satoshi to the shinobi academy two years early. The reason for this was due to how quickly Satoshi was advancing in his academic lessons and his growing competency in chakra manipulation. An appointment with the Hyuuga on December first, finalized the decision as it was discovered that Satoshi's chakra coils had nearly doubled in size thanks to the chakra exercises he'd been performing for more than six months. His Kikaichu colonies had also more than doubled in size during the intervening months, his swarm now consisting of around nine hundred bugs with two thirds of them associated with his chaotic energy and the other third closely tied to his chakra.
The next eight months were then dedicated to preparing Satoshi to enter the shinobi academy (the Hokage approving the early enrollment due to the on-going war and the need for more able bodied shinobi on the frontlines); the only break in training occurring in April when Shibi and Mayumi were finally married. They focused on physical conditioning, chakra building and control exercises, controlling his Kikaichu, and handling weapons.
Shortly after introducing Satoshi to the three main throwing weapons shinobi often fought with (the kunai, the shuriken, and the senbon), they discovered the toddler's dislike for the shuriken as his hands were so small that he tended to slice his fingers and palms open when handling the four bladed throwing stars. He had no problems with the kunai since he could easily grip the handle though he tended to hit low once he learned how to throw the knives but he absolutely excelled with the large throwing needles; the thin metal rods perfect for his little hands to grasp.
On Friday, August thirty-first (exactly one month after his fourth birthday), Shibi took Satoshi to the shinobi academy so that the four year old could take the placement exams to determine which class he would be joining (and therefore the earliest date he could attempt to take the Genin Exam). Shibi had to strictly order Satoshi not to set his Kikaichu free while inside of the academy for the duration of the test in order to prevent anyone from accusing the young prodigy of cheating his way into early enrollment. To Satoshi's surprise and pleasure, Genma was the Jounin to administer his assessment tests which helped put the four year old at ease (Shibi having pulled in a favor to have his old teammate give the test to help put his son at ease even though the Jounin usually worked with older Genin and Chuunin looking to increase their skills and knowledge).
Three hours and seven tests later (including a physical demonstration of his current taijutsu levels and his competency with shinobi weapons), Satoshi was informed that he'd be joining those students that were just entering their final year on Monday the third; meaning that it would be almost a year before he could even attempt to take the Genin Exam and that his classmates were all between four and six years older than him. That suited Satoshi just fine as he still didn't feel comfortable around children his own age.
Translations: Japanese to English
Hai – yes
Hitai-ate – forehead protector worn by shinobi in the Naruto-verse
Ōmisoka – New Year's Eve (also called the Year-end Fair)
Oshōgatsu – New Year's Celebration (Jan 1-3)
Otousan/tousan – father
Satoshi – boy's name meaning wise, fast learner
Shoichi – boy's name meaning flying son (usually a first born son)
Taijutsu – hand to hand combat
Notes:
* Rin's last name – according to Narutopedia, Rin's last name has been given as Nohara though I do not know how accurate that information is. After much debate, I have decided to use the provided last name since it was far easier than coming up with my own last name for Rin.
AN: For those of you who don't follow my Author's Page, the reason I was not posting as promised was due to another hard drive failure; this time it was my main drive that crashed on me and not my document drive; so I didn't not lose anything but a chapter worth of edit's that I had made. During the time I was without internet (because the old XP drive I snagged from my husband's old PC had a conniption fit over my on board Ethernet, video card, & sound card), I at least was able to edit stuff and write a bit more; so I've got tons of chapters that are ready to be posted.
I meant to start posting just as soon as I was back online but I had thousands of e-mails I needed to get through, bookmarks to recapture, and a dozen and one other things that just had to be done (like updating my Firefox dictionary so it would stop telling me I was spelling everything wrong; that was annoying). From this point forward, I will endeavor to post the minimum one chapter per day that I had previously promised as soon as I finish setting up all of my settings and whatnot that were lost when my drive crashed; that includes digging out all of my program discs so that I can reinstall the rest of my programs. As before, the story being updated will vary from day to day.
Lastly, I want to thank everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story and the other new ones I recently posted. And while I've not finished reading all of the reviews I've received because I just haven't had the time, I do appreciate each and every one. I will try to go back and respond or at least read them just as soon as I have time. ~ Jenn