Chapter 1: The Secret Meeting

Piles of shattered buildings still littered the area that was once the prosperous village of Konohagakure. It had only been a couple of months since Pain wreaked havoc on the village and it's people but they all seemed to be in decent spirits despite the current situation. A little over half of the village's former glory had been restored but it still had a long way to go before being what it used to be. Determination was one thing the people of the leaf village were known for and even that powerful drive had been almost stretched to its limit. Sleep- deprived faces and forced smiles riddled the newly built streets.

Danzō Shimura, the new sixth hokage, had been relentless with his orders and plans for restoring the village. So relentless that the man had completely disregarded the well-being of his subordinates and this had caused a lot of the citizens to resent him. At first they all liked the way the old man stepped in Lady Tsunade's shoes and took charge, but that quickly went from being the encouragement they needed to the never ending work they resented. It was slowly becoming clear that maybe Danzō wasn't the best choice for the position of the sixth hokage.

So basically life was extremely hectic for the Konoha villagers. So hectic that it called for much more energy than Nara Shikamaru had the desire to exert. The only thing that was keeping him from throwing his hands up with the whole situation was his extreme loyalty to his people. The young chunin had taken a break from guard duty to watch three very frustrated jonin storm from the freshly built hokage tower, most likely to relay even more orders to their squads. The boy gave a loud sigh and jammed his hands into his pockets before taking a seat on one of the large piles of lumber.

"That old man is going to destroy this village before we even get it rebuilt again.."

Shikamaru's tone was about as bland as the expression he had plastered on his face. He knew that he shouldn't complain considering Naruto-Kun had battled so courageously to save this place. Speaking of Uzumaki, Shikamaru hadn't seen the boy running up and down the streets like he typically did. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen any of his friends for quite some time. Even though the genius wouldn't admit it, this only worsened his already bad mood. Guard duty typically dampened his mood just from how the hours seemed to crawl by and this only made standing there even more boring.

The recent events had changed the lazy ninja in more than one way. The constant fighting to protect his family and friends with complete disregard to his own life seemed to instill a new kind of courage deep within his heart. Shikamaru no longer had any sort of lingering thoughts about saving his own hide when there were others in danger. Then there was the fact that the sixteen year old chunin had been thrown into a position that many retired shinobi had never had the opportunity to fill, much like most of his class. The maturity level of his entire graduating class seemed to increase. Well, except for Hyuuga Neji. Nothing seemed to faze that guy in the least bit.

Shikamaru had gotten so lost in his own thoughts that he never noticed Uzumaki Naruto approach him. "Yo! What's going on?" Naruto asked with his typical outrageously loud voice. The Nara simply looked up at his friend and let out a long yawn before scratching the back of his head. "Guard duty.. It's a drag." He said in a lazy tone while taking quick glances towards the gate to make sure he wasn't falling off on his assigned duties. "What about you, Naruto-kun?" Shikamaru almost immediately wanted to take that question back when the boy went into a very animated rant about how miserable he was. "It's horrible! I mean how is a guy supposed to survive when they've rebuilt every possible place to eat EXCEPT Ichiraku's?!" Shikamaru couldn't help but let out a chuckle before shaking his head at his friend.

"Naruto-kun, you can't tell me there isn't one other place you enjoy to eat at."

Naruto couldn't even find the words to answer such a ridiculous question so he just stared at the chunin as if he were a idiot. "Yeah, should've known that." Shikamaru muttered before taking yet another glance at the gate. "I even went to old man Tuechi's house to see if I could get a bowl! All of his cooking supplies is buried in one of those piles outside the gate." Naruto looked completely hopeless after he explained his ramen situation. Instead of continuing his rant the fox boy sat on the lumber beside Shikamaru and stared at the ground quietly.

Before either of them could think of something else that might strike up a conversation a little less depressing a figure appeared in the gate. They both immediately looked up after sensing the chakra pattern. "Who the hell is that?" Naruto asked aloud before squinting to see if maybe he would able to identify the person. Shikamaru immediately recognized that chakra pattern and jumped to his feet with a concerned expression. "Temari-chan? What is she doing here?" With that thought being a bit more verbal than he had intended Shikamaru trotted over to her. Naruto quickly chased after him asking a barrage of question the other ninja had no intentions of answering.

Once close enough the ninja quickly realized that she as completely drained of chakra and looked as if she were about to pass out. "Temari!" Shikamaru shouted just before catching the kunoichi at the last second. The sand shinobi regained consciousness almost as fast as she lost it and looked up at her friend with a disoriented look. Shikamaru told Naruto to go get helped and then quickly sat Temari up on another stack of lumber that wasn't too far away. It took the girl a few minutes to regain her train of thought while Shikamaru braced her from falling by putting his arm around her.

"I-I bring word from Sunagakure. The land of earth is preparing to…. To attack!"

This was a lot for someone to have to take in without preparing for this kind of information. "We sent word for help but never got any sort of reply. My brother sent me to see what the problem was." It was clear that Temari was having a hard time speaking due to her weak condition and loss of breath. If Shikamaru had to guess, the kunoichi had exhausted her chakra by running here without stopping. Something like that could kill a normal shinobi. "Slow down, Temari-chan. Catch your breath before you pass out again." His calm instructions only resulted in her giving him a sharp look that on a normal occasion would send chills down his spine.

Several hours later…

"You mean to tell me that the Kazekage's sister is in our medical wing?!" Danzō Shimura shouted with rage at one of his assistant who had given him the news. He slammed his fist down on the surface of the large wooden desk that sat in front of him. This could cause problems. I need no distractions from this villages restoration. Danzō thought to himself while maintaining a angry stare at the young man who seemed to be trembling in the doorway waiting for orders.

"Assemble all chunin-ranked and above immediately!" His loud shouts hadn't lost any rage within the minutes the man sat in silence. The assistant nodded and rushed off to gather everyone. The hokage rubbed his chin and gave a sigh of frustration. This was not something he wanted to deal with now. Actually, he didn't want to deal with this ever! In his respected opinion the sand village deserved none of their assistance. Not when they had their own problems to deal with.

It only took about a half hour for all of the shinobi to gather on the steps of the tower. Uzumaki Naruto and Nara Shikamaru were standing at the front the group. The hokage stepped out and held his hand up signaling for the crowd to stop talking and listen. "It has been brought to my attention that the Land of Earth has declared war on Sunagakure. As unfortunate as this is I want to make something very clear to all of you. I hereby forbid any ninja of Konoha from leaving to offer assistance. We have far too much to be dealt with here and it would be damaging from an economical standpoint to fight someone else's war." Almost immediately there were whispers among the ranks and then Naruto let out an outraged growl.

"We can't stand here and let the sand village fight alone! They are our allies!"

Danzō pointed a finger at the blond with a fierce expression. "You will obey my orders, boy! Do not think that just because you have been labeled a hero it gives you the right to question my authority! I am the hokage and you will do good to remember that!" The man then turned back into the tower and slammed the door. Naruto continued to shout curse words at the man even though he had already retreated to his office. The rest of the ninja stifled their want to argue with the order as well and dispersed back to what they were doing before the meeting.

Shikamaru was shocked to say the least. How was he going to tell Temari that she would making the journey home alone to fight after she woke up? "This is wrong.." He muttered quietly as Naruto finally gave up on cursing the hokage to death and came down to him. "I say we still go." Naruto's suggestion wasn't something that hadn't already crossed Shikamaru's mind. "That would be treason. Deserters are considered rogues." That was something that couldn't be taken very lightly. That radical would probably declare them criminals that should be killed on sight. Naruto stuck a finger in the chunin's face.

"Those are my friends. Rogue or not, I'm not going to let them face this alone."

This was stressful but Shikamaru knew exactly where the orphan was coming from. Finally after a minute or so of debating he nodded in agreement. "Good, ask everyone you know that may help and meet me at the Pervy Sage's grave at midnight." With that being said Naruto disappeared. This was going to be very interesting. Shikamaru returned to the hospital room Temari was in and waited for her to wake.

After what seemed like forever Temari opened her eyes. Shikamaru had fallen asleep in the chair next to her bed and when she realized he was sitting there she fought to hide the shade of red that appeared on her cheeks. With a single poke to the boy's forehead he awoke with a start. "Good morning sunshine." Temari said bluntly while Shikamaru frantically checked the time. They had fifteen minutes to get to the toad sage's grave. "Temari, we have to go. I'll explain everything on the way!" He then ran out of the room before questions had a chance to be asked so she had no choice but to follow.

By the time they arrived at their destination the sand kunoichi was completely caught up on what was going on. Although Shikamaru hadn't noticed it she had teared up a bit after finding out just how much he was risking to help her people. There were several figures up ahead and when he was close enough it became clear that Naruto had been busy since they departed. At the blonde's side were Hyuuga Hinata, Rock Lee and Akimichi Choji. They all nodded at the Temari as she fought back tears. Typically Temari was a fierce ninja with the emotional capacity of a boulder, but with how fast everything was coming at her she couldn't get her emotions in check.

"I cannot ask this of any of you. The fact that you could be exiled from your home is too much of a risk."

Before the girl could add more reasons why they should go back with her Shikamaru placed a finger on her lips. "None of us would've came if we didn't think the risk was worth it, Temari-Chan." Choji said before taking a handful of chips and shoving them into his mouth. They all nodded in agreement while Naruto stared at Choji's bag of chips with hungry eyes. "We don't turn our backs on friends, especially those friends that need help. This is our nindō, Temari. This is our ninja way." Shikamaru explained while trying to ignore the obvious emotion that had covered the kunoichi's face. Naruto then gestured for the girl to turn her attention to the groups' packs that were lying on the ground.

"We've got a long journey ahead of us so we better get the hell out of here!"

They all agreed and began picking up the packs and strapping them onto their packs. Choji elbowed his best friend and held out a pack to him. Shikamaru gave him a big grin before throwing it over his shoulder. "Thanks, Choji!" Leave it to his Akimichi counterpart to always be looking out for him. Lee began jumping up and down trying to stretch his legs, "Even though we have the fierce power of youth on our side we should stop for camp at the border of the Land of Wind!" He sounded so much like his sensei that it was kind of weird. Naruto was simply devouring a bag of Choji's chips with a fierceness that was a bit disturbing. Hinata watched him quietly and covered her mouth when she began to giggle.

"ALRIGHT! LETS GO!" The fox boy shouted before jumping into the trees and disappearing quickly. The rest of the group followed quickly while Shikamaru smiled and shook his head slowly. He had once told his dad, Shikaku, that Naruto would a valued ninja to Konoha one day and that when that happened he wanted walk that path by his side. This was that path. The whole group knew that they may never be able to go back home but forced it to the back of their heads. Shikamaru turned to Temari who just stood there still astonished by what they were sacrificing to help her village. "Hop on, we need to catch up." He said kneeling down in front of the blond kunoichi. "What?! Hell no! I don't need to be carried!" Temari scoffed while trying to look down her nose at him. The genius simply rolled his eye, "Shut up.. Don't be so stubborn, you know that you still haven't recovered from the trip here." With that he patted his own back in a very sarcastic way.

After several more attempts to argue Temari finally sighed in defeated and climbed on to his back. Shikamaru wrapped his arms around her legs and jumped into the trees and began sprinting to catch up with the rest of the group. There was a barely audible "thank you" whispered in his ear along the way and Shikamaru just smiled to himself. This is our ninja way.. MY nindō.

Author's Note's

Well I couldn't help but type the first chapter before crashing. I don't think it is as good as it should considering how sleep deprived I am.

Looking forward to reading the reviews and please tell me if this story is even worth reading!

Thanks!