Ok, I admit. If it were up to me to make the 'favourite four' Jounin, one of them would definetly NOT be Gai. It would be GENMA! I love Genma! He's so cool and sexy!
Enjoy!
About a week later after the catastrophe, four of our very own heros chanced upon the gory sight.
Tsunade had, for some odd, unexplainable reason, allowed our favourite four Jounin to take a one month break. Slightly suspicious, but glad for the time off, Kakashi, Gai, Asuma and Kurenai had decided to make the best of this month and tour around the countries -as tourists, not ninjas. But too bad. Kakashi was too well known to hope no-one would notice them as the ninjas they were.
So they got passes (umm... threatened the pass-issuing people with the Sharingan, second-hand smoke, Taijutsu and Genjutsu more like) and were now walking along happily. Gai and Asuma were chattering away about their prize students, Lee and Shikamaru, while an amused Kurenai listened to them. All the while thinking that Hinata, Shino and Kiba (and Akamaru too) were still better. Kakashi, of-course, had his nose buried in one of his Icha Icha books.
"Against my will, Lee has been opening one more chakra gate..." Gai was ranting. "Although this does make him much, much stronger. I'm afraid for him, seriously! What if his youthful flame got extinguished? The world would most probably stop and weep for Rock Lee!"
A cough that was half a concealed laugh came from the front. Gai turned to see Kakashi, whos shoulders were shaking with silent laughter. Seeing that Gai was about to rant about youth to Kakashi, (and knowing that Kakashi would say something along the lines of, 'Did you say something?') Asuma began to talk, drawing Gai's attention away from Kakashi.
"Shikamaru's made another shadow jutsu... what's this one called again? The Shadow Merge or something? It allows him to merge with his own shadow... takes the phrase 'silent as a shadow' up to a whole new level, doesn't it, eh?" Asuma said, grinning. "Seriously... at this rate, Shikamaru should be made Hokage or something."
"More like Kagekage," joked Kurenai. (1)
Asuma laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "I guess so...umph!"
Asuma was cut short as he bumped into Kakashi. "Hey... why'd you stop?" he asked jokingly, thinking Kakashi had stopped just to make Asuma bump into him and be humiliated. However, as he noticed Kakashi's visible eye narrowing, his brow furrowed, Asuma knew something was wrong.
"Huh?" asked Gai. "My eternal rival... are you alright?"
Kakashi sniffed the air, after a slight pause, they saw Kakashi's eyes widen again.
"Decay..." he muttered quietly.
"What? You smell decomposition?" asked Kurenai.
With a swift nod, Kakashi stowed his book away and began walking again, slightly faster this time, but in a different direction. Asuma grabbed his arm.
Kakashi turned back, annoyed. "Nani, Asuma!"
Asuma looked slightly exasperated.
"This is a forest, Kakashi," he explained. "Decomposition is everywhere! That stump over there is decaying!"
Kakashi shook his head. "No... this is different. Trust me."
The three other Jounin looked doubtful. Was Kakashi just going crazy again, or was there really something wrong? Knowing Kakashi a bit more personally than most people, they knew both options had equal chances of being the case.
Kurenai, Gai and Asuma looked at one another. Asuma shrugged. It shouldn't take long if Kakashi was just going crazy again. If there really was a problem, then it should be handled quickly -and who else was as suitable as them for the job?
Releasing Kakashi's arm, Asuma drew out a kunai instead.
"Lead the way," he said, making a mark on the tree they were standing by.
As Kakashi leapt away, Gai and Kurenai looked hesitantly at Asuma before following the silver haired Jounin. Asuma brought up the rear, marking trees every few seconds. Ninja speed made everything seem so close, yet if you were a bystander, you would notice them as much as you would notice a humming bird flying behind you. But if they went off the path, they would obviously need to get back on it. They could all tell that although Asuma's tree-marking was constant, the marked trees were around twenty metres away from each other.
After a few moments, Kakashi began to slow down, and the other Jounin picked up the foul scent Kakashi's sensitive nose had caught on to long before theirs. Kurenai's eyes widened.
"H-human decay!" she whispered hoarsely.
"Yes. Someone died here..." said Kakashi. "I wanted to see who... the scent underneath the decay seems rather familiar."
"...you can smell other PEOPLE?" asked Gai. "Wow... that's another point for you, my rival."
"Faintly, and rarely," replied Kakashi. "Err... this time, I summoned Pakkun before we came and hid him in my backpack. That's why it's not fully zipped. I picked up the decaying scent, but Pakkun caught on to the scent underneath it, and nudged me.
"When I concentrated a bit more, I realized that the scent was rather familiar." Kakashi continued to talk. "This smell... I can't quite place it... it's... augh... the scent of the decomposition is too strong..."
Finally, Kakashi slowed to a complete stop. He looked around, sniffed, wrinkled his nose and turned towards the right. He pointed at a tree about 10 metres away, and said one word. "There."
The three other companions looked toward the direction Kakashi pointed at. They saw a lot of dried blood, and a of cloud flies. Asuma marked another tree, and Kurenai took out a bottle of bug spray. She sprayed it on herself, then Gai (since he was the closest) then Asuma, and finally Kakashi. She stowed it away, and followed the bug-sprayed males towards the cloud of bugs.
When they walked around to the other side of the tree, the flies flew off. Wow... was that bug spray really that good?
Kakashi stopped as he saw the carcass. His eyes widened as he saw what lay beside the dead body. Quickly, he moved over to block Kurenai's sight.
"Kakashi! What the...!" exclaimed Kurenai.
"Uh... this is... um... inappropriate!" squeaked Kakashi.
"How? You, Asuma and Gai are seeing it!" countered Kurenai, shifting around. Sadly for her, Kakashi was still blocking her view.
"This is... not suitable for women!" Asuma said. He too, recognised the body, and was helping Kakashi stop the ever-so-stubborn Kurenai from getting a glimpse of the decaying body.
"What he said!" Kakashi was hopping around blocking Kurenai's view as well.
"IT WILL EXTINGUISH YOUR YOUTHFUL FLAME!" screamed Gai. He just has to tell everything in 'youthful language' doesnt he?
"Sexists!" fired Kurenai, glaring at the smoking and masked Jounin. She turned to Gai. "Youthist!"
Kurenai drew out two kunai, and held them to Kakashi and Asuma's backs. She poked the point through their vests.
"Let me see, or get injured," she said.
"Kurenai, please! Listen-"
"Now, Kakashi!"
"No, really, Kurenai-"
"Be quiet, Asuma!"
"But... but your youthfullness-!"
"You too, Gai!"
"Close your eyes, now, Kurenai, or be unconcious." Asuma said calmly. "It's the same either way. The difference is easy, or force."
Kurenai's eyes narrowed, a quizzical expression on her face. "What do you mean? I'm posing quite a threat to you right now with me pointing a kunai at your spinal cord."
Asuma held up his hand. He was still holding the kunai he had used to mark the trees.
Cursing silently, and knowing that she would never hurt the two men at the blade anyway, but that Asuma would indeed probably knock her out, Kurenai withdrew the daggers and closed her eyes.
"Alright," she said. "My eyes are closed. Could you at least tell me, if it's so gory I can't look at it?"
Gai looked at the dead body sadly.
"It's not that the sight is unsettling, although it is," he said, dropping, for once, the youth talks. "It's... who it is."
Kurenai raised her eyebrows. "Who is it?"
The three male Jounin exchanged glances before Kakashi spoke up.
"Aburame Shino."
Kurenai's eyelids flew open. Shino? She looked at the dead body in front of her. That's... Shino? No way! Shino wasn't... couldn't be...
But as Kurenai examined the body, she noticed the long, knee-length, high collared white jacket that was still recognisable even though it was torn, ripped, slashed and dyed crimson at parts. The bug container beside him was empty, but smeared in dried, caked blood. The sunglasses that rested on his limp hand were broken, bent and shattered.
She didn't need Gai striking a pressure point on her back to make her faint. A milisecond before Gai's hand touched her clothes, Kurenai collasped onto the ground, unable to believe that one of her best students was dead.
OK, here's the system. I've decided that each character will have 3 chapters. Regardless of what I've said in my previous chapter. So the chapters will be...
Chapter One: The Death
Chapter Two: The Find
Chapter Three: The Funeral
And then we move onto the next character, ok? Read and Review, please, everyone! Reviews make me so happy!
If there are any grammar/spelling mistakes... excuse it!
(1) Hmmm... you probably don't get the joke here. Kage means shadow, and since Shikamaru works with shadows all the time, instead of being called the Fire Shadow, which is Hokage, Kurenai reckons he should be the Kagekage. The Shadow shadow... or something. Meh.