Chapter 3: Finding out what happened, Waking up the Sleeping Giant
Two weeks went by in the blink of an eye, and in Bunta's room were four people standing around his bed.
One of these people is Shikaku Nara, who looked wide awake and ready to plan a large strategic counterattack or grant defence in war, and a member of the Ino-Shika-Cho team.
Next to him stood a tall, plump man with naturally brown hair, but he seemed to wear a long, spiky red hairpiece. He has purple markings on his cheeks, which is a common trait in the Akimichi clan, even if not everyone has them. He wears a samurai-like outfit covering most of a black suit with the armor, which has the kanji for "food" on it on the front. He also wears a rope belt, hand-guards, and, instead of a forehead protector, a hachimaki tied around his head.
This man is Chōza Akimichi, clan leader of the Akimichi clan and the second member of the Ino-Shik-Cho trio.
The third is a man who has long ash-blond hair that reaches down to his lower back, in a long ponytail, with the top side spiky. He has light green eyes and strong facial features, which include a well-defined jaw line. He wears the standard flak jonin jacket over a black outfit, complete with hand-guards, forehead protector, and a sleeveless red haori.
This man is the last of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Inoichi Yamanaka, the clan head of the Yamanaka clan of Mind readers.
The last man is an old man, with lighter than normal skin due to old age, gray hair, and a goatee, with a gaunt face and the wrinkles old people tend to get around the forehead and eyes.
Wearing a red dress with a white cloak around him, with on his head a primary red hat with white highlights, with on the front of the hat in red the kanji for "fire".
This man is Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, Konohagakure.
Who was standing at the foot end of Bunta's bed.
"Are you certain, Inoichi?" Chōza asked worried
"I'm afraid I am; he is in a comatose state, but his mind is terrifyingly active. If I wish to know the cause, I will have to dive in." Inoichi answered back in a grim tone, looking at his Akimichi friend
"Then do so. It is strange for the always-on-time boy to never show up for a new mission for a full two weeks. He always does at least one mission a week. Find out what the cause is, and how we can fix it." Hiruzen Sarutobi stated
"Yes, Hokage-sama, Chōza, my friend, he is of your clan." Inochi looked at him
"...Do it, my son has hardly eaten anything, and Bunta's mother is worried sick as well. She has even collapsed from exhaustion, and I fear for her life." Chōza told Inoichi, giving him the green light
"Sigh, doing this on our own… here goes." Inochi mumbled, going through multiple hand seals, looking at Bunta
"Mind Transfer Jutsu"
After using the jutsu, Inoichi's body sat there holding the last handseal in place, and his other hand on Bunta's head, with eyes closed. Normally, he would collapse like a puppet with its strings cut, the fact that he has not, clearly showed his expertise with the jutsu, and that he has not sent all of his mind in case of a trap.
"And now we wait, if something causes it, Inoichi will find it." the wide awake Shikaku stated
— — — — —
Inside Bunta's mind, Inoichi arrived in an earthy brown realm in the mind, with spots of blue and green lines around in snaking patterns.
"Incredible, normally it is dark purple close to ink black, this is my first time seeing this." Inouchi mumbled, floating in place
He looked around when he heard the cursing voice of Bunta.
'Damn, damn, damn! I did everything… everything right this time… where did I go wrong!' Bunta's loud voice was easily heard by Inoichi, drawing his interest and making him float towards it
Inouchi floated towards this large floating screen, watching how the cloudy surface became clear. It showed the Jonin exam grounds, from the beginning of the test to the end, then it started from the beginning again and repeated in an endless cycle.
Each time it reset and played again, Inoichi would hear Bunta curse and yell in frustration, depression, and clear desperation.
'What is going on? Why would he be enduring the same thing in repeating cycles?' Inochi questioned in his mind, clearly intrigued by the situation
Inochi watched the repeating memory for a while, trying to understand the situation.
He had heard stories from Shikaku over drinks and from Naomi Yamanaka, the teammate of Bunta. Who talked a lot about how much Bunta wanted to prove he could become a jonin without help. How much he trained often to the point of collapse, and how she worried he was working towards complete ruin.
And again, when the memory ended with him falling backwards, losing consciousness, Bunta's voice was heard.
'I need to know… I HAVE TO KNOW! Where did I go wrong! I did everything right! So why!' Bunta's emotion-filled voice was heard from another part of the mind
Inochi floated towards the new direction where the voice had come from, and found a large war strategy command room with multiple Bunta's on a multitude of screens like before.
Each screen showed another aspect of the exam that happened with Bunta's mumbling voice heard from them, trying to analyse each aspect.
'Impressive, these analytical capabilities are good and impressive, but it seems he overdid it and disconnected the mind from his body… no wonder our clans are put together with the Nara being the thinkers if this is the result if we have no Nara around… or is this happening because we always use the Nara?' Inoichi thought before shaking his head at how ridiculous it sounded
Inoichi listened and went from screen to screen observing, when he finally arrived at a small pushed aside screen with a repeating memory pushed to a corner, a bad memory, and something trying to be forgotten
'I wonder what this one is, I can't see it play out, the fact that all other screens show white fog till I am right in front of them, this one… is dark black, almost evil looking.' Inoichi thought, looking at the small screen leaning on the ground in a corner
Inoichi slowly touched the dark screen, covering his mind's body in chakra in case he had to hastily retreat away from it.
The moment he touched it, he noticed he was sitting on the front porch of Bunta's house.
'Intriguing, so after hearing the news from those two, Bunta collapsed on his bed and did not wake up at all. Seems the news shocked him more than anyone could have imagined. Curious, I will reconnect his mind and body first, then ask Shikaku about those two. Even Bunta felt weird seeing them… but I feel something in this memory is still missing… no matter what, reconnect first, then wake him up.' Inoichi decided because multiple people close to Bunta are not in good health or state of mind.
So waking him was, for now, more important.
And so Inoichi went towards the large Brain in the middle, surrounded by the brown with snaking lines of blue and green lights as if to protect it.
But before he could, his touch hit another screen of a memory that flew out of the brown chakra covering the brain.
"I got these to thank you for helping me with the 'Expansion no jutsu!'" a 12-year-old boy, with short spiky light-brown hair, wearing a green short-sleeved haori with a long, white scarf over a white shirt with the kanji for "food" on it. He also wears black shorts and bandages around his legs and forearms. Was seen saying, handing over a small box of dumplings
"Hahaha! Chōji, you did not need to do this. I helped you out because I wanted to, no need to pay me back for anything… they do look good though." Bunta's jovial voice was heard, while a slight bit of drool was wiped away by his arm
"I know, right? But they are yours! Oh, I was given this for free when I told these two men I was looking for something to give you. I could not decide on what to give you, though, so they gave me these." Chōji looked wide-eyed with a big smile, seeing how Bunta had already eaten all of it in one big go
'Given to him, for free and not by the shop owner either? Not good… You boy are way too trusting, what happened to my lesson of keeping Enemies close but Friends closer?... Not good, need to run, getting dizzy… damit Chōji, you were asked to poison me.' Bunta's voice was heard, slightly starting to panic in his thoughts
"Tell your Father how they looked like okay? So he can visit them and pay for it, we Akimichi never eat free food." Bunta said quickly before excusing himself and rushing back home to his room
'Damit… can't… focus...… ugh…' Bunta's thoughts were heard just before he collapsed on his bed out cold
'Not good… I have to inform the others, first, time to reconnect his mind and body.' Inoichi thought, looking at Bunta's brain once more
Inoichi floated closer, and when his hand touched the brain and injected his chakra, he was suddenly thrown out.
— — — — —
Outside of Bunta's mind in his room, Inoichi took a sudden breath after his sudden ejection from Bunta's mind. After his clear shock of being thrown out without warning or signs that it could or would happen wore off, he opened his eyes
After Inoichi opened his eyes, he leaned against the bed, taking large gulps of air.
"Inoichi, what happened? What did you see? What shocked you to this point of sudden release?" Hiruzen the Hokage asked the questions after Inoichi had calmed down a bit
"Nothing good, I'm afraid… I'll start explaining from the beginning," Inoichi said, standing up and leaning against the small nightstand next to the bed.
After all eyes were on him, Inoichi began his story of his recent experience.
"His mind is active and well in use; however, something is blocking the connection you normally have between the body and the brain. His Earth Chakra is covering his brain in such a thick layer that it pushed me out the moment I tried to wake him with a small shock to the right part of the brain… Anyway, before that, I saw some interesting memories." Inoichi began
Holding up a single finger "One, He repeats thinking about what happened during the exam, wondering where he went wrong and thus failed the exam." he said then raised a second finger, watching the rise of an eyebrow from Shikaku.
"Two, a discarded or modified memory about him receiving news of these two Jonin that he had failed his exams after he woke up at home, after Panda brought him back. The reason I say this is that portions of what he thought had been cut off or cut out." he continued seeing everyone silently watching him
"Three, Chōji, was given free dumplings to specifically give to Bunta-san, who had already eaten them when the boy said so, Bunta-San panicked hearing this and thought back to what he told him about "Keeping Enemies Close, but Friends Closer.", then he felt dizzy, told Chōji to tell you Chōza about paying them back for an Akimichi never takes or accepts free food from anyone without giving anything back… mainly from those unknown to them." he spoke again watching his old Akimichi friend frown
"He felt dizzy not long after eating them, then went home and collapsed on his bed, and the rest is history as we know he never left his bed for the last two weeks. He has been missing meetings with friends, and if not for his mother and the little guy getting worried to the point of collapse with barely eating anything during the last Clan gathering. I am ashamed to say I would likely not have noticed him being sick. Also if Naomi-san had not told me Bunta-san's mother had collapsed and that he was not there." Inoichi said, raising a fourth finger
"Four, his brain is fully covered like I said by his potent Earth elemental chakra, even some snaking lines of his lesser elements are also involved. This is where I got thrown out as you already know." he finished speaking watching both his friends and the Hokage stand there frowning
"Shikaku, get Tsume, and gather those two Jonin, I would like to know after Ibiki has his way, why they decided to tell our Giant friend he had failed." Hiruzen began in a stern voice that clearly showed it was an order
"Inoichi and Chouza, go to the young boy and do what you do best as parents, bribe him with all you can eat BBQ if he tells you who it was that give him the food because you want to invite them to join you at the BBQ." a smiling Hiruzen spoke up without a smile.
"Yes, Hokage-Sama!" Both of them answered in turn.
"Now then before we go our separate ways, let us wake 'The Sleeping Giant', Inoichi, I need you to go back in, I will inject you with Earth chakra from myself. You will use it to cover your mental self and do the mind thing to wake him up." Hiruzen ordered again, walking towards the Yamanaka clan head
"Yes, Hokage-Sama." Inoichi confirmed, turning towards the bed and using the same technique as before.
"Mind Transfer Jutsu"
After saying such, Inoichi saw himself again in Bunta's mind, but saw himself covered in a brown layered shield.
'Here goes nothing.' he said, flying into the brown shield covering the brain
After a tense five or so minutes, he finally left the brown sphere protecting the brain and was able to see the brain now.
Floating to it, he injected the brain with his chakra to shock it awake, making both mind and body connect and make you feel as if you had a really bad nightmare
The moment he did, he saw the brown shield dissipate and saw the mind's connection between brain and body once again. After seeing this, Inoichi left on his own accord this time.
After a short time, the eyes of Bunta opened up.
"Urgh… fuck me sideways, those dumplins were bad… right posion not bad… oh… shit… Hokage-Sama, Inoichi-Sama, Shikaku-Sama… Chōza-Sama." a pale-faced Bunta said, going paler seeing who was around him
"Hey, you are finally awake, sleeping giant." Bunta heard a happy-sounding Chōza say
"What happened after I blacked out? How long was I out for that matter?" Bunta asked, seeing two fingers going up from Shikaku
"Two days? Thank the heavens." Bunta said before going so pale he almost lost consciousness again from what he heard next
"Two weeks." Shikaku said in his gruff voice
"WHAT!" Bunta screamed in shock