13 A discovery!

"Nice, you keep your word."

"Of course we are; I hope you're not playing any cheap trick on us."

"Rest assured, I'm not."

"Well, Orochimaru-sama would be pleased with this trade."

Inside a ruined place, two people were having a conversation. One of them was holding a scroll the size of the arm of an adult man, while the other was holding a glass vial filled with dense chakras.

'With this Kyuubi's chakra sample, "that" would be stronger...'

'With this, Orochimaru-sama would be able to improve his experiment...'

Two people, each with their own agenda. One young and one old person was jovially observing each item in their own hand.

"Well then, I'll take my leave. Let's do the next trade again soon..." One of them was packing his things and walking out of the place.

---

"...And we're here for a mission issued by the village chief."

Shikamaru said politely while secretly observing the elder in front of him.

"If I'm to guess, it's about the beasts, no?" Shinno said with an amicable smile on his lips after a brief pause.

"Yes, maybe after our friend -Ino- fully recovered, we'll rest for a moment before we go to the chief's house," Shikamaru replied with a smile of his own.

"Well then, who am I to stall you for so long? I'm the doctor; let us hope our little miss here is not infected with anything serious." Shinno walked in and readily approached Ino; he then performed several checks on her.

"Nothing serious here; her nerves are just partially paralyzed temporarily. The harmful substances are all already extracted; it was Amaru's doing, I presume?"

"Y-yes, sensei!" Amaru replied with a slight blush on her face, albeit with a little stutter.

"Good girl, you're getting better." A proud smile bloomed on Shinno's face; he patted Amaru's head lightly with his coarse hand.

'Sensei is praising me, hehe...' Amaru's eyes closed as she enjoyed the head pat given by Shinno.

"As I said, our little miss here has nothing serious. Just give her water, a lot of it, for her to drink; I bet her throat already feels dry like a desert. Also, let her rest for the night. She ought to be able to move normally in the early morning." Ending his examination, Shinno gave Ino several advice regarding poison and venom handling.

"Well then, we'll take her with us. Thank you for your help, Shinno-sensei. This is our little token of gratitude..." With a bow, Shikamaru took an envelope out of his pocket.

"...It's not much, but please accept it." He raised his head and placed the envelope on Shinno's hand.

"Well... thank you. I need this, to be honest; the price of the daily necessities are sky high now due to the beasts' attack." Shinno sheepishly said.

Shikamaru just let out his business smile; then he opened his mouth. "With this, we excuse ourselves. Good night, Doctor."

Chouji took Ino on his back, and with Shikamaru, they went to an Inn in the middle of the village. After they lay Ino down, Chouji and Shikamaru sat and waited for their Sensei.

...

The sun has long set, and darkness illuminated the land. The dark clouds hid the moon as the wind blew hard. Slowly, the drizzle started, and rain began to wash the earth from its filth.

*creak*

"Yo! How's Ino?" Asuma went into the room. Contrary to the rain outside, his attires were perfectly dry.

"Ino is fine; she just needs some rest. And behold, rest now she is." Shikamaru yawned while replying to his sensei. "I think I need one too..."

"Sensei, did you scout the forest?" Chouji asked, he still pondering about a particular thing.

"I did; we shouldn't begin our hunt tonight or whenever the light is dim. The number of poisonous and venomous creatures inside the forest is no joke." A frown was apparent on Asuma's face, his eyebrows creased, and his countenance darkened.

"We found something amiss earlier when we met this doctor. His name is Shinno; apparently, he was a shinobi..." Shikamaru looked at his Sensei, waiting for his words to be discerned by him.

"...But that's not the main problem. The thing is, Chouji felt an ominous chakra exuding from him. Yes, it was faint, even almost non-existent, and only for a brief second."

Asuma walked to the side and leaned against the wall near the window; he opened it and lit his cigarette to begin smoking. "Continue..."

"So I briefly looked at Shikamaru to make sure whether I was the only one who felt it, and unfortunately, that's the case," Chouji added; he was able to sense the faint fluctuation of chakra as a side benefit because of a particular hell-mode training regiment from his dad per his request.

"To make things certain, I asked Ino to check with her clan technique, just to be sure." Although Ino was paralyzed, it was only true from the waist down. Her chakra was still able to function normally, as did her upper body.

"Yes, Chouji asked me about it. And check out what I found..." Ino performed her clan's technique to share her experience with her Sensei and teammates earlier.

"This..."

Asuma scrunched his face up; this was the chakra signature of the Kyuubi. He would never forget this malevolent chakra full of malice. As for the trio, they knew -or rather had a strong hunch- about what it was because of their interaction with Naruto.

"Yes, Sensei. Our conjecture is this is Kyuubi's chakra; because of its implications, we don't dare to act rashly, so we're waiting for you to make decisions." Ino finished her part; she sighed as the importance of this information was quite big.

Any information, experiment, and things regarding the Bijuu was a big deal. Everything about it was a secret kept close by every hidden village. So, knowing the possibility of an experiment or information regarding the Kyuubi leaking out is a must to report to the Hokage.

Asuma then took a blank scroll from his pouch and wrote a brief report. He then makes a series of hand seals before a puff of smoke appears in front of him. After the smoke receded, a small brown-colored chimp appeared before him.

"Chim-chan, please give this to my old man. And here's a potato for you." Asuma gave the scroll to the little chimp and took a steamed potato on the table for it.

The little chimp happily took the scroll with his right hand and the potato with his left.

"Chim chim~" He happily ate the potato before disappearing with another puff of smoke together with the scroll.

"Pretty convenient..." Shikamaru stared at it, unblinking.

"It's cute..." Stars could be seen inside Ino's eyes; she was fond of cute things, as usual.

"Is it strong?" Chouji asked; he was intrigued by other possibilities of its utilities.

"Ckck~ It's a summoned creat-"

"We know!" Asuma was not able to finish his smugness before he was interrupted by his students.

"It's special; unlike other summoned creatures, Chim-chan comes from the monkey kingdom. They're one of few civilized creatures, and they were one of even fewer groups that know how to be a sage and have their own sage." Asuma smirked; he felt great seeing his all-knowing student Shikamaru showing a baffled face.

'At least they used to have one...'

"So, can I continue my explanation?" Smugness showed fully on Asuma's face.

'This is the power of experience~'