-1Naruto: Friendship

I don't own Naruto or its characters.

One-shot

The moon shined brightly over Konaha, as most of the town late peaceably in their beds a sleep. In fact almost the whole town was asleep at this hour, but there were a few who were still awake at this late hour. There were guards who were always on duty to make sure nothing dangerous approached the village. There where people in town as well who were to make sure that no crimes took place while everyone was asleep. As well as people working in the hospitals to help people who have been injured. Still given these numbers are people who are up. There is another group goes up, who it could be said were not normally up at this hour. this group was situated in a top-secret library in the village center. This group composed of a key people who are looking through a number of large books throughout the library. The one who was doing the most work at that moment was a certain young Chunin, who had been the first of his class to reach that rank. He quickly went through book after book. Looking over them as fast as anyone could possibly do so.

Shikamaru's mind raced as he read book after book, one at a time trying to figure out the complex code he had been given earlier that day. The code was unlike anything he'd ever seen in his entire life, far more charging, far more difficult, and far less easy to solve. He knew you would have to look at this as if it were a great mental game. One of those self imposed great challenges, far better than the challenges his opponents gave him at shoji. So this was also a challenge which he knew he had to rise up to meet, one which he knew he had to beat. This was something to help a friend and a good friend on top of that, one who had been there to help him on numerous occasions, and this was his chance to help a friend again as well.

Shikamaru thought about the person for whom he was doing this favor for. He and Naruto had gone back quite a ways, just as he had gone back a good ways with every member of the Konoha 9. Still, the friendship he had with the blonde shinobi was different from the friendship that he had with most of the other Konoha 9. He remembered the day when he first meet Naruto at school, and how annoying the hyperactive youngster could be. He remembered that Naruto would somehow manage to mess up his nap during class with his loud outburst, and his fights with other students were just troublesome to listen to across the classroom. Still, he also remembered the trouble, he, Choji, Naruto, and Kiba would get into, sometimes even escaping from. He always saw Naruto as one of the losers, a group of misfit kids who were not cool enough to fit in, and he always like that for some reason. He was glad that he graduated with him in his class too. He then remember with a sigh, the whole events which went down in the forest of death, and the prelims. At that point, while the two got together, they still were not very close friends. The time between the prelims, and the final round gave him a chance to get to know the knucklehead fool much better. He learned that he could be a really good person, and was interesting to be around. Shikamaru knew that Naruto's decision to push him into the ring before his match was something he need to thank him for. He was going to just give up before hand, and he would of never become a chunin if that would of happened. Then despite the opening complaint, Naruto made a great teammate on the mission to get Sasuke. Shikamaru wished he would have been able to help more, but that was a experience he would never forget. When Naruto left, he was sad to see him go, and when he returned he was surprised by just how much he had grown. Shikamaru looked back at the paper for a second but his mind slipped back to his old friend. He remembered how much he regretted not going with Naruto to bring back Sasuke. He wondered what it would have been like had he gone on that mission. If he would have been able to come up with a better plan to bring back the Uchiha. Then when his teacher died, he was glad that Naruto had helped him get revenge by taking out one of the two who had cause the death. This code, would be his thanks to his friend. His thanks for helping him so much over the years, while asking for so little.

The next morning, Naruto woke up early, and noticed a note from the Hokage under his door. The note told him to go to the top-secret library. Naruto smiled, as he knew what this meant. He knew that Shikamaru had already broken the code, that Jiraya had left him before his own death. Now he could figure the secret which was so important for the future of the village.

Some how thinking about it, Naruto was hardly surprised that Shikamaru had figured out the code so quickly. Naruto laughed to himself as he though back on his friendship with the formerly lazy genius. He thought what his reaction would have been if you had asked him 4 years before about this moment. He would of laughed and said something about how Shikamaru was to stupid to do something like breaking such a impossible code. Shikamaru, while he never made fun of him during their childhood, was not a close friend either. In fact, it was not until, the incident where Gaara tried to kill Lee, that they started to become close friends. Then he was also the most pleasant of the shinobi to talk with at the last part of the Chunin exam. While he couldn't figure out why Shikamaru gave up when he had won the match against Temari, he was glad that he was the one to make Chunin. Still, the moment that Naruto truly began to respect Shikamaru was when he willingly used himself as a sacrifice to hold of the sound shinobi during the attack by sound and sand villages. Then there was the attempt to bring back Sasuke, and while they failed, he would be eternally grateful for the help he had given to solve that problem. It was also here when he realized that Shikamaru was a true genius, and he knew that he would never be as smart as his friend. Still, when he got back, he was surprised to see how much he had improved with the new shadow sewing jutsu. He found himself not surprised at all when he managed to beat Hidan. Now he knew he would have to depend on him more then ever, and he knew he could. Both of the young warriors, knew the other, and knew that the other was one of the greatest shinobi in the village, and one of the best friends they had.

A/n- I don't do that many one-shots, I hope that you enjoyed this one, feel free to leave a word in the review.I fixed it up to make it read better.