Chapter 314: Ninja Games
"Urgh, I was just starting to enjoy this," Kaida cried.
"Well, it is you who have to explain to Naruto why you were late after he explained how important it was for you to be on time, so that you can play all of the games he had decided with his friends and you," Yomi said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, let's go. We can't let all that planning go to waste," Kaida said. He and Yomi went towards the Academy, waiting at the gates for Naruto.
"Big brother!" a shout came from the crowd of children leaving the academy. This was just a normal school for children, because unlike 5 years before, Konoha is not in such bad shape that it will need 5-6 years to become ninja in case war happened.
Seeing Naruto, Kaida waved his hand along with Yomi, though he was surprised by what he was seeing. Unlike the popular belief, Naruto was not without friends in childhood in the anime. People like Shikamaru, Choji were more or less his friends in the anime, because unlike other times, Danzo couldn't scare off children of some of the well-respected and well-connected clans of Konoha, especially when they were children of the clan heads.
And just like in the anime, Kaida was seeing Naruto running towards him, not alone. He was dragging Shikamaru with him clearly against his will, while Choji followed behind with a bag of chips in his hand.
"Big brother, you are here," Naruto said with a smile. "Here, he is my friend Shikamaru, and he is Choji. He is also my friend," he said, pushing Shikamaru ahead who was trying to sneak off, while pointing toward Choji who was slowly making his way toward the group.
"Huy, I was nice meeting you. You must be busy, so I will not waste any more of your time. See you," Shikamaru said with a straight face and then placed his hand in his pocket, making his way toward his house.
"It is nice to meet you as well. Naruto always tells me about you guys, how he made some best friends in the academy. I was looking forward to meeting you guys, and Shikamaru, I am not busy at all."
"Yay, let's go, brother! We have so many things we have to do," Naruto said as he dragged a now deflated-looking Shikamaru.
"What a drag," Shikamaru murmured under his breath. The reason Naruto didn't introduce Yomi was simple: all of his friends were already familiar with her. Unlike Kaida, she normally visited them usually for picking up Naruto but also played with them sometimes.
All five of them first made their way toward a training area where Naruto had placed many ninja tools, mostly made up of paper but some made up of wood as well.
"Let's play ninja!" he shouted proudly, showing his collection. Kaida gave a cursory glance to the 'weapons', checking if any of them had blades. After making sure that all of them were well-edged and safe, he nodded his head.
"So who is going to be the enemy?" Yomi asked.
"Since it is big brother Kaida's first time playing with us, he should be the enemy," Naruto said with a cheeky smile.
"Okay, if you guys manage to defeat me, I will treat you with something delicious after the game," Kaida said. Hearing that, Choji, for the first time, took his hand off the chip bag and asked, "You are serious, right?"
"Of course. I never go back on my words," Kaida said with a smile.
"What's the point? You are Kaida Uchiha. I hear that you won the chunin competition in Kumogakure. There is no way we can ever win," Shikamaru said, shrugging his shoulders.
"But it is four against one. If we try, we may win," Yomi said, trying to encourage the boy.
'He is too smart for that, Yomi,' Kaida thought.
"Hey, Shikamaru, if we win, I will not disturb your sleep during class for one whole week," Naruto said with a completely serious face. For Yomi, that sounded like a joke, but Kaida, who knew Shikamaru's personality, was impressed.
'I knew it. Though Naruto appeared foolish to many in the anime, he was a rare genius who was just too nice and good to use his brain like a true ninja in this blood-thirsty world. He was by no means a dumb person,' Kaida thought. As he was predicting, Shikamaru became ready, but from the look of it, he was not ready for a game. No, he was ready for a war. The price of his victory was one week of peaceful sleep—a price too big to forget for him.
[Continuing from the previous edit...]
And with this, four of them scattered all around the forest in the playground, while Kaida had to enter after 10 minutes. Shikamaru, now more attentive than before, shared a plan to win, with winning conditions as simple as landing a single hit. He had a little confidence in winning.
Though Naruto and Choji already knew how smart Shikamaru was, it was Yomi who was most surprised by the plan Shikamaru had come up with. He not only told a perfect way to go but also took the strength and weakness of each person into account, planning the position and timing.
It was almost like the techniques she was learning to become a chunin. That meant this 5-6-year-old boy was able to come up with techniques of chunin level easily.
'What will he become when he grows up?' Yomi had a terrifying thought in her mind.
"Let's go," with the briefing complete, all four of them dispersed.
swoosh, swoosh Many shuriken, most made up of paper but some of wood as well, assaulted Kaida as soon as he entered the forest. But the difference in strength was too much. Even without activating his Sharingan, Kaida easily evaded all of the shuriken.
"Now!" a shout came from the background, and Naruto shot out from the shadows with a kunai in his hand. With no technique, he went with a simple attack, which Kaida easily deflected, leaving Naruto running toward the tree. He had to throw the kunai and save himself from colliding with the tree.
While Kaida was looking toward him, Choji swiftly made his way toward Kaida, throwing many shuriken, which he knew Kaida had to evade. Shikamaru also cut off other evading routes.
"Good," Kaida said, but unlike his word, he evaded Choji's attack with ease as well, leaving only Yomi and Shikamaru to attack. Yomi, being the only one with some chance, was waiting for a perfect opportunity.
As soon as Kaida evaded Choji and pushed him toward a tree, Yomi appeared behind Kaida with a swift motion of her wooden shuriken. She aimed for Kaida's legs, which were his most unstable point at the moment, but soon she guessed it was a trap Kaida had set specifically for her.
She swiftly evaded Kaida's hand coming toward her neck, which would have meant her defeat.
"Wow, that was fast," Kaida said, but Yomi didn't stay there for any longer and swiftly flickered away. By that time, Naruto and Choji had run away as well.
"So now I have to find them, huh?" Kaida said, and within a second, he appeared behind the tree Naruto was hiding. "You are dead," Kaida said, lightly tapping Naruto's head.
"Hehe," Naruto just chuckled at that, just happy to play.
Kaida smiled and then flickered away once again, appearing behind Choji, and then behind Shikamaru.
"That was nice planning. You almost had it," Kaida said, tapping Shikamaru's head.
"Yeah, right," Shikamaru said, shrugging his shoulder.
With only Yomi left, but Kaida actually didn't know her location, showing just how well she had trained as a tracker and sensor. Naturally, she knew how to hide perfectly as well.
"Well, since you are using your techniques, I could use mine as well," Kaida said with a smirk, and then suddenly his eyes started glowing red with three tomoe appearing in them as well.
With Sharingan activated, Kaida could easily see the trace Yomi had left behind, which were imperceptible with normal eyes, showing just how much of an advantage a kekkei genkai user had.
Without any training, Kaida could be a better tracker than Yomi with just three tomoe Sharingan. With Sharingan activated, the game ended in seconds.
"Tch, I worked for nothing. There was no way we could have won," Shikamaru said with a dejected tone.
"Well, if you want, we can play once again, and you guys can come up with some new tactics," Kaida said.
"With your Sharingan, there is no tactic we can come up with, not even if there were 10 of us," Shikamaru said.
"Yeah," Yomi chimed in, frustrated about the outcome. Even though she knew that Kaida was powerful, it was still completely frustrating how easily he could outsmart her in a field where he had zero experience and she had trained like crazy.
"Anyway, you guys did great. The treat is still on me," Kaida said, lifting the mood of the team a little, especially Choji, who was the most happy, followed by Naruto.
While all of this was happening, Kaida's clones were relentlessly training in the new jutsu he had learned, with each clone dispersing itself at 30-minute intervals so that Kaida would not have to suffer headaches.