Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Chronicles of a Self-Made Shinobi ❯ Spelunking (2) ( Chapter 6 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chronicles of a Self-Made Shinobi: Spelunking (chap. 2)

Kumiko yawned and shoved the gadget she was tinkering with back into her pack. The mule was really getting her sore so she hopped onto the supplies and poked Shikamaru.

“Move it lazy-ass there's enough room here for two.”

“How troublesome,” he grumbled and scooched over.

Kumiko lay down and fell asleep within minutes.

They were both jolted awake when Lee leaped on top of them. “We're here!”

Kumiko yawned and sat up to see Kakashi and Pakkun looking up at her. “Yo,” he said, raising his hand.

The boys unloaded the cart onto the grass in the clearing where Kakashi had set up his camp. Kumiko walked around the area and a little ways into the forest. When they finished she continued to wander. She paced all around until the sun began to set. Soon, when it was nighttime she still hadn't joined her comrades at camp.

“She's not as hard as she seems,” Lee was explaining to Shikamaru by fire-light.

He sighed. “All women are troublesome,” he replied poking it with a stick.

Kakashi rose and walked off in the direction of Kumiko's shadow. “You should come to the camp and eat something,” he said behind her.

“Sensei,” she replied. “Tell me about your search. What you were looking for and how you were doing it.”

He nodded. “Let's do that in the camp.”

Kumiko warmed a cup of ramen over the fire and slurped it as Kakashi summoned Pakkun.

“I called Pakkun and the others and told them to sniff out any human presence in the forest. But mostly they came upon simple travelers passing through. I wandered around, searching for signs of chakra use or anything out of the ordinary. After a few days of nothing I switched the schedule to night time, because that's when travelers claimed to have seen things happening, but still nothing.”

Pakkun cleared his throat and cut in. “I even sat just outside of other travelers' camps and watched them to see if they acted strangely. There was nothing. Even so, I brought Kakashi to them in the morning and he questioned them. We were having no luck at all until the middle of the second week when a group I sat in on at night was nowhere to be found the next morning. It was our only clue so we set up camp and covered every inch of the area.”

Kakashi sighed. “I'm getting quite frustrated with the situation.

Kumiko gulped down the rest of the ramen and wiped her mouth. “You said you were searching for chakra use?”

He nodded.

“Did you search for plain chakra as well?”

“I did for awhile. Ninja can sense when chakra is being used or possibly someone with chakra. But there was nothing,” Kakashi replied.

“How much chakra has to be used for you to sense it?”

Kakashi cocked his head. “Well any amount that a person is using…”

She stood up without a word and went to rummage through her supplies. Lee and Kakashi sat in the camp, scratching their heads, and Shikamaru yawned. “What a person uses? That's quite a lot, ever considered something emitting chakra on a lesser level?”

The lightbulb went on the in other two's heads.

Shikamaru stood up and yawned again then approached Kumiko. “I'm assuming you have something that detects low chakra levels?”

Kumiko nodded. “It looks kind of like a walkie-talkie with a screen on it and two antennas. Look over in that bag for me?”

“They're smart,” Lee said, awed.

“Why didn't I think of that?” Kalashi replied, scratching the back of his head.

Kumiko found what she was looking for. “Shika, lend me some of your chakra?”

He held out his hand and she pressed his finger onto a small depression on the front of the device. “Ouch,” Shikamaru said as it sucked out some of his chakra and the screen glowed green.

“All of you please get onto higher ground or your chakra will interfere.”

They jumped up into the trees and watching her from a distance. Kumiko crouched down and stared at the screen. Numbers flitted across it until finally setting on 38. She stood up and waved the others down.

“Well, it looks like this place is leaking chakra. It's only at 38. 50 would be what a person would emit normally, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a lot higher than that. Something was interfering with the signal, there's some kind of gas mixing with the chakra and masking its presence.”

“Leaking from…the ground?” Lee asked.

Kumiko nodded. “I don't know how, but if I figure out what this other thing is, it'll be a big clue.”

Kakashi pulled out a scroll and began scribbling on it, when he was finished he handed it to Pakkun and sent him off. “I'm sending the Fifth this information. Let's sleep for now; tomorrow we'll begin.”

Kumiko was awake before the others, struggling to pull out a large box. Surprisingly, Shikamaru was the first to wake up.

“What is this thing? It's so heavy.”

“I made it a long time ago, and never modified it to make it smaller. I had a feeling I might have to test for gas components in the air, so I packed it. We have to bring it to a cleared spot.

“How troublesome,” Shika complained, straining against the weight.

They plopped it down on the grass. She crouched in front of it and dusted it off. “I haven't used this thing in awhile. Shika, go wake the other two and tell them to go into the village and ask around for information on the forest. I want to know if there was anything built here. Then I need your chakra again.”

Shika grumbled and woke the others.

When they were gone she took his hand and placed it on the top of the box with a darkened screen. “Sorry, I have to use more than the other one because there's no electricity and it's kind of old-fashioned.”

Shika grunted at the odd feeling of chakra being sucked out of the body. When she was done he sagged to the ground. “Hnn…I feel so tired. I'm just going to nap here.”

Kumiko rolled her eyes and flipped a switch so the screen glowed blue. It asked her to specify what she was looking for.

“Chickusou!” she said angrily. She had been meaning to modify it so it searched for all components in the air. She made it so it asked for specific components first to check if it worked. This is going to take awhile, she thought, and began with the simple elements.

Kumiko sat in front of the screen all morning to mid-afternoon, getting more and more angry. Shika woke up and lay next to her in the grass, every once and awhile suggesting something. She was about to pummel the screen to a pulp when Lee and Kakashi returned.

Over lunch they told her what they found.

“The villagers all said there wasn't much in the forest except a few shrines and an ancient burial ground,” Lee informed them eating a rice ball they had brought back with them.

Kumiko and Shikamaru looked at each other for a brief second then rushed over to the device and punched something in. Lee and Kakashi shrugged. Twenty minutes later Kumiko gasped. “Chickusou…this place is saturated with radon.”

Shika started at the number on the screen wide-eyed. “This much radon means there's…”

Kumiko jumped up and sped back to the camp and grabbed Kakashi's shirt. “Summon Pakkun, get out a scroll NOW!”

She fumbled in her pack for a pen.

“What's going on?” Lee asked, a little frightened.

“That burial ground.” Shikamaru said, hands in his pockets. “It's built on top of enough uranium to blow up an entire village.”

The message was dispatched with Pakkun, and Kakashi was sent back to Waterfall to inform their leader. The message said to block off all paths into the forest until they returned. Lee, Shikamaru, and Kumiko packed up their camp and relocated to the entrance of the cave that hosted the burial grounds.

“They said that the last people to go down there was generations ago. They're afraid of the ancestors' ghosts,” Lee informed them.

Kumiko pulled out four pieces of cloth and handed one to each of them. “Wear this. The Fifth gave them to me after the affair with the Sand so I could work in the shop without worrying about inhaling dangerous chemicals. Don't take it off until we're out of this forest, radon is very dangerous. Give the extra to Kakashi when he returns.”

Kumiko had trouble deciding what to bring with her. She couldn't carry any more than what would fit in her pack, and it wasn't enough. “Put stuff in mine,” a voice said behind her.

Shikamaru was standing above her with his hands in his pockets. “You're not going with me. This is really dangerous,” she said.

He humphed. “Troublesome woman… I'm the leader of the mission you were assigned to, which means I'm going. It's a drag but you obviously can't go alone. Never go down into a cave by yourself. That's just common knowledge.”

She smiled at him. “Thanks, Shikamaru.”

He widened his eyes and turned away. “Troublesome…”

After vigorous protests from Lee it was decided he would stay behind and wait for Kakashi. Kumiko explained that too many people would be more of a burden, and everything she needed could fit into two packs.

Lee grabbed her and made her promise to come back safely, then reluctantly let her go, and watched her and Shikamaru disappear into the cave's entrance.