Granted, they considered chopping up the bodies into easy-to-store pieces and they did so for specific cuts. However, it'd be dangerous for the chefs if they mistakenly ate human flesh so this seemed like the best solution especially since no one cared if a mixup happened with a villager's meal. Not that anyone wants to waste Kaji's food, but it's best to be ready in case human error occurs. Thankfully, there was a frozen treat that wouldn't be mixed up with the ramen stand's ingredients and wouldn't require getting Teuchi up to cook it.
The ice cream!
"Let's see. Cool!" Kaji exclaimed as he examined the flavor options. Some new flavors were in the chilly section.
One flavor was a 'Blood' Orange Sorbet.
Another flavor was Chocolate with Toasted 'Nuts'.
"Can't resist a good play on words." An amused Kaji muttered, but soon removed his goggles and frowned. "Let's see if this helps." He hoped as he set his goggles on the shelf and opened the fruity option first.
Obviously, Kaji assumed that he was simply too exhausted to change all the way back. Eating should fix that, but he noticed a problem after two scoops of the frozen treat. After all, he was watching his reflection in the goggles and could see that his eyes weren't shifting anymore.
Was he not eating enough? When that thought crossed his mind he ate even faster. Of course, he suffered a brain freeze and he had to stop for a moment. As he recovered he tried to warm up by, at least, moving outside of the freezer with his frozen treats. Despite eventually finishing both tubs of frozen desserts nothing changed.
The new look to his eyes now consists of several shades of blues. It was perfectly arranged to resemble the petals of a blue lotus flower. A pair of blue lotus flower eyes with a black five-pointed star-shaped pupil right in the center.
The hair was no longer a mess of spikey blonde hair. In fact, it now looked like hundreds of slim braids that went down to the nape of his neck. However, the strangest part was the colors. It started with his old blonde at the roots, but after a few inches, it became suspiciously dark green.
Kaji touched his new hair and paled, "Oh shit … If it is …" He gulped and held up a finger. To his horror, it didn't take much concentration to make a 'braid' move up and wrap around his finger. "Oh shit! How the hell do I fix this?!" He exclaimed frantically.
It didn't matter what he tried next. Changing back and forth between his other forms didn't help. Trying the move his vines into a different hairstyle didn't help. Soon Kaji had to admit defeat. There was no fixing this.
"I'm back!" Kaji perked up the second he heard Ayame's voice. He immediately got dressed again, gathered everything,g and rushed through to the basements to the house. "Kaji? What happened?" Ayame asked curiously when she spotted the changes.
"While I was visiting tube guy I was nearly caught by an insect user and he unsuccessfully tried to drain chakra, which hurt like hell! Now my hair is completely made of vines and I can't fix it just like my eyes! I have no clue how to explain this and I ate all the ice cream! It was delicious!" Kaji frantically explained as he haphazardly tossed the empty tubs of ice cream and spoon in the kitchen sink and sealed his goggles away to show his eyes.
Ayame blinked in shock as she processed all the information that was just thrown at her, "Ok … I need time to think about this one … Hey, Dad?" She called out.
"Yes, my dear fishy?" A clearly still sleepy Teuchi babbled.
"We're going out to test your theory!" Ayame called up.
"Theory?" Kaji muttered in confusion, completely missing Teuchi's sleepy reply, which might have been 'Love you, my little puffer'.
Ayame nodded as she pulled out her wallet, "Dad made an interesting point when we were waiting for you. It might not be possible for you to leave the village without being watched so we're going to kill two birds with one stone." She casually tossed Kaji her wallet. "I lost my wallet on my way back from checking the inventory at the pet store in the next town and we need to go look for it near the edge of the village … Loudly too. Oh, and you lost a bet."
It took a second, but Kaji realized what the plan was and chuckled, "I understand. Let's go find your wallet." He said as the wallet disappeared into his seal and he put his goggles on.
Once they left the home Kaji was forced to deal with his other name and the glares. However, he knew no one wanted to do anything with Ayame there. Besides, everyone actually seemed more amused by the conversation than anything else.
"Why did you pick this hairstyle?" Kaji whined sulkily and lots of the villagers heard as they walked by.
Ayame giggled, "You should be more detailed next time you bet against me! Just be happy I didn't pick a bowl cut."
Kaji inwardly smirked as he saw the villagers begin chatting about the news and he cringed, "Right. Thanks. So where'd your wallet go?"
"Sorry, Naruto, but Tora grabbed it on my way back," Ayame said and had to hold back her laughter when the eavesdroppers looked horrified at the mere mention of the infamous cat. Despite knowing this wasn't a real problem even Kaji looked scared. "It was my own fault for going through the catnip toys before heading back."
"Yeah." Kaji chuckled sheepishly as they continued their trek towards the outpost town Ayame was just at.
A little way outside the village limits Kaji tensed. They only just left the village a few minutes ago and were just partway down the road when he smelled something. It was faint, but Kaji recognized Sasuke, Sakura, and the scents of a few others, who he knew were ROOT agents considering they were in the lab earlier.
"So … Where do you think Tora dropped your wallet?" Kaji asked, knowing the ramen chef got the hint.
Ayame took a mental note of where they were and smiled, "She jumped me as I went past that patch of long grass and she disappeared into it."
Kaji groaned, "She better not be in there." He said, somehow managing to sound only slightly nervous even though he could feel the eyes of dozens of killers watching him from the trees.
Thankfully, Ayame thought through the placement of her 'lost' wallet. Not only was the grass tall enough to hide much of the young ninja even when standing, but the ROOT agents couldn't get close enough. All the spies were in the trees and the trees weren't in the grassy area. None of them could see Kaji unseal the wallet after a few minutes of pretending to search.
"I found it!" Kaji called out and held up the wallet over the grass as he climbed out and back onto the road. Please don't play with catnip again. You're lucky Tora only took the wallet." Kaji muttered as he handed back the wallet.
Ayame smiled as she put her wallet in her pocket, "No guarantees! I saw some really cute kittens while I was there. I might get Dad to pick one of them instead of fish." She commented cheerfully as they walked back to Konoha.
Kaji sighed, "Just don't get them without warning me. Tora hates me enough. I really don't need to add catnip to the equation … So how long do I have to keep hair like this?"
"Well, I like it so you're definitely keeping it for the time being," Ayame exclaimed cheerfully.
Kaji huffed, "Lose one bet and I lose my hair for life." He muttered casually despite focusing all his senses on the hidden ninjas following them. The second they entered the village the scents vanished. "It can't be on me."
Ayame nodded knowing exactly what the young ninja meant. After all, those ninjas knew Kaji left the village somehow. However, none of them seemed to know Kaji's smaller movements, like leaving the tent during missions.
Obviously, that meant that there wasn't anything on his body that tracked him. On the other hand, there was definitely something alerting everyone should Kaji step outside the village. It was a bittersweet realization and it was definitely something that they should discuss with Teuchi too.
"Hey, Dad! We need to chat!" Ayame called out as they went into their home and secured all the doors and windows.
"You have no idea." Teuchi could be heard saying from his bedroom.
Something about the ramen chef's tone made Ayame and Kaji tense. Kaji immediately went in front of Ayame so he could protect her as they went towards Teuchi's room. When they entered they saw Teuchi sitting up on the bed.
Everything looked normal, but the ramen chef looked nervous. Ayame saw Kaji sniff the air and cautiously entered the room. She saw him stand protectively in front of her father before turning and looking at something that was hidden by the door. As quickly as she could Ayame dashed over to join her father and looked to see what the problem was.
Much to their horror it was a masked ninja, who had a scent that Kaji recognized as being one of the ROOT agents from before.
"What do you want?" Kaji asked after a few minutes of awkward silence.
Something about this encounter didn't make sense. If he was discovered then shouldn't more than one agent be here? However, there wasn't anything else. Not even Sasuke or Sakura were there and this agent just seemed to be waiting for something instead of restraining them. Was this actually what they feared?
A moment passed before the ROOT agent suddenly kneeled obediently, unintentionally startling the others present with the sudden motion, "I wish to serve."
"Serve? Who? … Me?" Kaji asked and was surprised to get a nod in confirmation. "Isn't your boss Danzo?" He asked, trying to remember what he overheard when he was in the vents earlier.
The agent removed his mask, hilariously revealing dark shades over the eyes, and set it on the floor, "I no longer have any desire to follow him."
Feeling a little calmer about this situation, Teuchi raised an eyebrow, "What made you suddenly … want to quit?"
The ROOT agent frowned, "After finding you in the vent my insects insisted that you'd be the biggest ally."
Suddenly, a thought flashed through Kaji's mind. The flowers he accidentally grew might've had something to do with it. After all, the insects did act strangely after coming in contact with the flowers. Perhaps that also affected the insect user in some way since the insects rest inside the user's body.
That was a huge relief. Kaji was positive that the ROOT agent was secretly using a code before. However, if that were true then something would've happened by now. If not immediately then something should've happened when he stepped out of Konoha. Even just knowing this information should be enough for Danzo or Hiruzen to want to have him suffer a head injury to remove some memories. That must mean this agent truly did cover for him.
Despite feeling that this was a safe person Kaji wanted to see how the guy would react when presented with certain information, "I know I'm the second decoy. I'm called Kaji in private." The agent didn't seem to react, but Kaji was positive he saw the eyebrows rise ever so slightly. "Were you part of that cover-up?"
"No." The former ROOT agent said bluntly. "I was removed from the Aburame clan at 10. That cover-up would've just taken place by then so I was still being trained and couldn't go on missions for another year. I'm only vaguely aware of the details, which were all removed. What little I know is from overhearing the Hokage and Danzo talking years ago. For a while, they wondered if you'd die right after being put in place as the replacement decoy. They haven't shown those concerns since you became skilled enough to stay out of the villagers' reach."
Kaji, Ayam,e and Teuchi deadpanned, "They were concerned?" They all muttered bitterly.
Saying that seemed so unbelievable that it was infuriating. Couldn't have the headache of replacing another decoy! Why couldn't they tone down the danger if they were so concerned?!
Kaji felt the vines on his head rise in response to his anger like the hackles on a pissed-off dog. The feeling of his friends' anger on top of that made it even more difficult to calm down and he even felt like he was about to change into his scary form. However, now was not the time to be pissed off. There was a bit more information they needed to know.
"What's your name?" Kaji asked, still trying to ignore his growing hatred for everyone involved with this conspiracy.
The agent looked at Kaji without any expression though he seemed to hesitate, "Torune Aburame." He said almost awkwardly.
Somewhere in Kaji's mind, he wondered if the agent wasn't used to his name. Perhaps Danzo doesn't refer to them by name. Do the agents have assigned numbers or something? Either way that didn't matter now.
"Torune … I want to swap out '000' with someone else. Obviously, it won't be that easy. Can you tell us why he's being moved or even who he is?" Kaji asked, hoping the agent wouldn't change his mind about helping.