Re: Akimichi

Chouji was silent throughout the night. After he replied Ino's letter, Chouji contemplated whether if there's a way to help Lee, or at least to raise the chance of his surgeries to success. Thus the morning after, Chouji approached his Sensei and told him about Lee.

"If even Tsunade Hime-sama said it was dangerous to go through the surgery, then its process would be extremely delicate to be handled by others. One thing that I know about a medical expert in our village is the Nara clan was a clan that possesses a rare and unique book about medical knowledge that exclusively owned by their clan."

Hearing that, Choji's eyes were lit. Without waiting even for a second, Chouji immediately wrote a letter and shamelessly asked his sensei to help him send it to the village using his summon. To his student's request, Asuma just sighed and summoned his contracted summon.

"Mon Mon~!"

Chouji was surprised seeing a different creature than his sensei summoned before, "Asuma-sensei, wasn't your contracted summon was Chimcar? If I remember correctly he has reddish-brown fur only, smaller in size, and sounds rather... differently."

Asuma smiled smugly at his student, he took his cigarette and put it on his mouth. "It's him, but my summon grows along with his age and continuously changed. He's called Monferno now~"

Chouji was partially amazed at his sensei summoned creature, he gave his letter to Monferno together with a few bananas. "Yo, little guy... I guess I can't call you a little guy anymore, Monferno can you give my letter to my friend Shikamaru? I can give you bananas for it."

"Mon Mon~!"

Monferno took both the bananas and the letter before it disappeared in a swirl of flame. Chuoji eyes were shining, he looked at Asuma with stars in his eyes.

"There are many of the everchanging summon on Shikkotsu forest, then I assume you choose to look for your own summon..." Chouji nodded at his sensei's words, he expectantly waiting for the time he had his own summoned creature. "Then we go later before we go to the Fire temple with all of the guardian candidates. I'll tell Shikamaru later to meet us on the way."

---

Later on, for the few days, the Fire Daimyo watched as all of the guardian candidates were tested by Chiriku. He saw Chuoji literally aced everything that was tested by Chiriku from body strength, awareness, and many others.

'Heck, I didn't even try my best yet I aced it all...' Chouji was troubled, he didn't want to be a guardian because he has to be beside the Daimyo all the time and literally had to use his body as a shield if the condition called. The thing was...

'Who the f*ck he think he is, why the heck do I need to babysit this old man...' Chouji was pissed, he can't quit it just like that in case he offended the Daimyo and it impacted his clan in a bad way.

Chouji eyes trailed, and he saw the Daimyo looked at him with a smile plastered on his face while his head nodding vehemently like a chicken pecking. One phase cleared, and the candidates were to be trained by Chiriku in the fire temple. Though before the group departed, Asuma approached Chiriku and the two had a long talk.

---

Another day passed, Asuma and Chouji were on their way to meet Shikamaru. Two days later, the three finally meet in a small village on the outskirts of a bamboo forest. They rested for the night there before Asuma used a reverse-summon scroll for the three of them to went to the monkey kingdom inside the Shikkotsu forest.

"Whoa..."

"That's... unexpected."

Both Chouji and Shikamaru were flabbergasted with what they have seen. Unlike what was in their imagination, the monkey kingdom was stunningly beautiful. It spanned over a few miles in size with huge trees surrounding it and acted as a border of a sort. In short, it was a paradise on earth.

On the western side of the center of the kingdom, there's a huge waterfall, and rainbows could be seen on top of the said waterfall making quite a sight to see. There were many kinds of primates that they saw; chimpanzees, apes, baboons, were amongst many kinds that they were seeing.

They all live inside a tree houses of various sizes, with some rare exceptions live in caves.

"Welcome, to the monkey kingdom of Shikkotsu forest!" A brown-furred monkey with a golden sheen on its surface was seen welcoming them, he's Wuhai, the son of the Monkey King Enma.

"Yo, if it's not Asuma boy and his students~ Do you come here to meet with my old man?" Wuhai grinned, despite his cheerful disposition and his childish antics, he was more than a dozen years older than Asuma. "Hoho~ Isn't it the giant boy? What's your name, boy?"

Wuhai turned his head towards Chouji as his mischievous grin showed on his face, his hand rubbed his own chin as he swept his gaze on Chouji from top to bottom then back to the top again.

"My name is Akmichi Chouji..." Unknown to others, Wuhai stealthily concentrating a part of his natural energy and put pressure on Chouji. Since he was a mere newbie with natural energy control, Chouji was not able to mitigate the pressure. Fortunately for him though, Chuoji's physique was stronger than the average shinobi so he was able to resist the pressure for a few seconds.

"Not bad not bad, Kouji is it..." Wuhai nodded as he continued to sweep his gaze at Chouji.

"It's Chou- Whoa!!"

"Anyway, Kouji-chan~ Let's spar for a bit, shall we?" Wuhai patted Chouji's shoulder nonchalantly as he disregards Chouji's words and lifted him like a rice bag. "Yosh, you two come along with me. My old man will be in the training ground right now, and that's the place we'll be going~"

"Troublesome..." Shikamaru grumbled and Asuma smiled wryly as they helplessly followed Wuhai into the training ground, they ran for a few minutes before they arrived in front of an open field surrounded with huge banana trees on its surrounding.

When they arrived, Wuhai tossed Chouji on the ground for quite a distance. Chouji lamented, he felt that his whole body and his chakra was on halt when Wuhai tapped his shoulder, one thing that Chouji was certain of, Wuhai used fuinjutsu to. Though Chouji didn't know what kind of fuinjutsu did he use. Chouji cursed under his breath as he swore to never let Wuhai touch him again.

"Okay, let's start Kouji boy~"

"Why do you want to spar with me?" Chouji ignored Wuhai's exclamation and asked Wuhai after he stood back on his two feet. Chouji gazed at Wuhai irritatingly, meanwhile, Wuhai was just stood silently checking his nails.

Seeing that Wuhai still had not replied after some time, Chouji frowned and said, "Hey, I asked you a question. Answer me."

"Why the heck do you want to spar with me?" Chouji made up his mind and cautiously move toward Wuhai.

When Chuoji was within ten meters of Wuhai, he opened his mouth and replied, "I am interested in your potential and I want to check it by myself. Maybe if I deem you worthy I'll let you performed a contract with me." Wuhai said as he picked his ear with his pinkie finger.

Chouji was surprised and dropped his suspicion. He suddenly remembered something and said, "Wait for a second, Why do I want to make a contract with you?"

"I can help you with that passenger inside you~" Chouji was surprised with Wuhai's words, 'How can he...'

"With that fuinjutsu of yours?"

Wuhai grinned as he was satisfied with Chouji's shocked face, and he was pleased with his curiosity and discerning ability. Just as he opened his mouth to explain what he gonna do with that 'passenger' inside him, Chouji suddenly charged forward!

Chouji's arms were enlarged as he dashed, and Chuoji shot forward as if he was mad boar. Chouji punched right on Wuhai's body and caught Wuhai off guard.

*Bang*

The impact of the hit was powerful, and Wuhai was knocked back and crashed into a tree in the distance. Chouji sneered inside his mind as he prepared for the battle. He had decided to take the first step and create momentum in this spar.

"Don't blame me, you put your guard down. And you said that the spar already began."

"Kyahaha, well done Kouji boy~" On the receiving end of the attack, Wuhai slowly got up without any injury. His fur releasing a golden glow, which was a natural energy shield that he put on his body surface.

Wuhai's expression was full of joy, and he summoned two golden balls made from natural energies. One ball became a golden shield, while the other ball turned into a golden spear. The appearance was old-fashioned, but one could feel the natural energy in the weapon, showcasing that they were not ordinary weapons.

"Good, now it's my turn!"

The battle erupted.

Chouji made a few hand seals, and four flame bullets were summoned and fired rapidly. Wuhai raised his golden shield, and the shield released a larger circular light shield on top of it.

*Ding* *ding* *dang* *dang*

All the bullets were deflected by the light shield.

Wuhai chuckled with glee and pointed his spear right at Chouji. The head of a spear suddenly fired a golden bullet in an arrow shape. Chouji jumped in an instant, and the bullet passed right by his feet. The bullet left clear holes in the trees that were on its path and disappeared into the distance.

From this one display, it's clear that Wuhai's control of energy whether it was chakra or natural energy was vastly superior to Chouji's in any way.

Chouji jumped to the side and attempted to threw a few jutsus at Wuhai, Chouji was still cautious to get close to him. What if his body was paralyzed again by his fuinjutsu?

However, all the Jutsus that Chouji threw were blocked off by the shield. At the same time, Wuhai summoned another golden ball, which formed another golden spear and threw it into the sky.

*Fwoosh*

A bright golden beam arched in the sky and suddenly rocketed into his direction. 'So fast!' Chouji eyes were dilated as he tried to dodge it, but alas, he still got scrapped by the edge of the spear which made a trail of blood was seen on his left shoulder.

'Damn!' Although pissed, Chouji tried to remain calm. It was not the first time that he had fought someone stronger than him. Even though he knew that Wuhai had a terrifying skill in fuinjutsu, but he was not familiar with any fuinjutsu! Plus, he's still in the dark regarding Wuhai's other capabilities.

'This is the first time I fight with a summoned creature. His ranged attack is stronger than mine. I need to try and get close. Maybe there'll be a way...'

---

Meanwhile,

Asuma and Shikamaru were watching Chouji and Wuhai spar, on their side were Enma and Monferno. They were having a talk of their own.

"I'll let him accompany you, but be careful, there's nothing in this forest that not dangerous and powerful. Especially you, kid. You're still weak." Enma looked at Shikamaru, and the latter reluctantly acknowledged his weakness.

'Tsk, It's troublesome. But it will not be for long, I will not remain weak forever...'