Author's Note: Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto manga/anime but it would be cool if I did, also this is my first fanfiction.
Chapter 2: The Price of Prevention
From within the new complex of the kage Tower, sat a young stressed out man. while at his average darkly colored wooden desk he went over tons of paper work scanning it lazily while slowly tapping his finger on his desk. he had hit that same spot so often now that it started to leave a visible dent.
He put the papers down slowly as he began to hear a commotion from outside his office that seemed to Echo throughout the hallways. His door slammed open from the force of Konohamaru's kick. He walked in with his eyebrows twitching as the three children were moving around frantically all over his face and shoulders. This caused him to say tiredly
"Alright, alright. Were here, you can sit down now."In response this caused them to chant happily
"Ceiling drop, ceiling drop, ceiling drop!" The stressed out ANBU sighed in defeat, but couldn't help but smile before saying
"Fine." The trio of children climbed down to his midsection and clung to him so tightly that he was nearly winded. He jumped up performing a backflip and landed on the ceiling, while using his chakra to stick to it. He then let himself fall while spinning only to land back on his feet with the children still attached.
They cheered for him to go again but Konohamaru was stern about the deal they made.
"Sorry, deals a deal. Now Namito, Hana back to your father's room, and you Itachi... let's just call it your dad's brooding room." They all jumped off of the ANBU ninja and ran out of the room and back into their fathers respective rooms.
He turned towards the Nara clan leader expecting him to be annoyed but was surprised to see him more amused than anything else. Shikamaru said half jokingly
"After all these years, you're still chasing cats I see." This caused Konohamaru to laugh and say
"I think the word you're looking for is brats." Shikamaru lazily shrugged and retorted back saying
"Cats, brats it's all the same." Shikamaru had then taken on a more serious look as he remembered the paperwork he was working on before the interruption and sighed heavily. Konohamaru sat down in a nearby chair and said
"Well at least that's one problem down" with no need to glance up Shikamaru simply said in a glum tone
"Yeah, sure one problem down, about another hundred to go. Such a pain." Konohamaru raised his brow and said with a voiced laced with concern
"Still no word from Naruto?" The Nara advisor shook his head.
"No, he's been gone for nearly 10 months now on this negotiation assignment with the Land Of Demons. I told him as our Koyo Kage, he shouldn't have gone. Or at the very least not alone. A representative should have been fine" Konohamaru folded his arms in concern.
"You think I should go get em?" Shikamaru looked up at him and took some time to think about the question. He finally said
"No, Sasuke's still gone as well, trying to assimilate the Rain village into the Ninja alliance. An action I advised him against as our Kurai Ha Kage, but of course he ignored my advisement but at least he took his strike team Taka with him." He messaged his temples before continuing
"What's the point of having two Kage if they both leave the village and don't listen to their advisor. Might as well be advising a wall. Such a pain in the ass those two are. Plus Sakura was the only authorized one to go outside the village to assist the Sand village and beef up there medical staff. So in short, with no Sannin here we're going to need you here in case something happens. You're the only other person whose power can even compare to there's."
Shikamaru waited for a response but soon realized that Konohamaru stopped paying attention.
"I'm sorry, can you repeat that but... shorter?" Shikamaru narrowed his eyes and said
"You sure you're not a blood relative of Naruto?" Konohamaru smirked in response and said
"Hey, you know i'm not the only Kage level ninja left in the village, you could always ask-" Suddenly cut of, Shikamaru said almost loudly
"No we can't, he's not even close to being trustworthy." The Nara clan head's implication made konohamaru's stomach turn with anger and made him clench his fist so hard that his knuckles turned white. With a hint of bitterness the angered ANBU said
"I was talkin about Akimichi Choji" There was silence. Shikamaru couldn't believe he even hinted at receiving help from him right now, especially to Konohamaru. The stress got to him at times, causing him to occasionally blurt out things he shouldn't, either that or he had been hanging out with Naruto for too long. The Shikamaru turned his chair around and looked out of his window towards the Akimichi district of the village.
(Akimichi Compound)
Choji Stood at the center of his household at a large red round table dressed like his father before him. To his right sat Ino dressed in a lavender dress and pinned up hair with a brown haired chubby baby in her lap, to his left sat his father dressed in dark red robes. Choji's brow began to twitch as he was losing his patents with his arguing clan members and finally bellowed out
"ALRIGHT ENOUGH ARGUING YOU GUYS! IT'S NOT HELPING ANYTHING! THE DECISION WAS MADE BY THE ELDERS AND CLAN HEADS, SASUKE EARNED HIS PLACE BACK IN THE VILLAGE AND THAT'S THAT!." His gathered clan members had slowly began to calm down when suddenly another clan member spoke.
"THAT UCHIHA BASTARD NEARLY COST US OUR HEIR TO THE CLAN!" The clan members then continued there uproar causing Choji to drop his head on the table causing it to thud loudly while Ino tried to console him by rubbing his shoulder. He looked up and said with a renewed will
"YOU ALL HAVE GOT TO GET OVER THAT, IT WAS FOURTEEN YEARS AGO FOR KAMI'S SAKE, DON'T YOU THROW THAT KUNIA AT ME! IT'S HYPOCRITICAL TO YOUR ARGUMENT!"
(Hokage Tower)
Shikamaru continued to look on as he said lazily"He's busy."
The ANBU nin finally stood with his irritation starting to boil over. He pulled his mask out from within his flak jacket and put it back on his face before looking back at Shikamaru and saying
"Screw this, I'm Naruto's brother and right arm if shit goes down badly. I will not allow Namito and Hana to lose their father like he did. Besides you know something about losing someone don't you Nara Shikamaru?" These words from the younger Ninja made Shikamaru squint and glance at the Top left drawer in his desk that contained and old polished lighter. He then looked back towards Konohamaru and said while crossing his hands in front of his face
"Were shinobi kid, we do what we need to do." Konohamaru walked past the siting Shikamaru. Neither one of them making eye contact or so much as turning their heads towards each other. Konohamaru simply replied, saying
"I know, and thats what i'm doing" He opened up the window behind the advisor nin. As he began to step out of it with a breeze coming in all he heard was
"Darkness cannot exist without light you know, if something really has happened to Naruto. Odds are, you'd be next in line to be the Kōyō Kage" Konohamaru stopped halfway out the window and turned his head back towards Shikamaru. There was a long silence between the two shinobi.
Finally Konohamaru turned back towards the window and said seriously
"If I can't bring back this one, I don't deserve to be one." Channeling chakra into his feet. He jumped from the tower and landed on a nearby building and continued jumping roof tops until he reached the Hidden Leaf villages boarder.
Shikamaru begun to pick up his stack of papers and organized them for what he was all to certain would be Naruto's return. The Nara ninja smirked to himself thinking he must be blood relative of that knucklehead, both of them are such a pain.
(Demon Country Outskirts)
Naruto sat hiding, his hair now the same length as his father the fourth. With nearly all black clothing from the neck down all laced with metal mesh protection. This was all covered by a longer version of the coat he once wore when he fought pain. Only now it was torn with blood streaming down.
He was breathing heavily and had a frightened women in his arms with light blonde hair, pupiless eyes similar to the Hyuga except her eyes were a pale lavender. She was also wearing priestess formal dresswear from her country. As they hid behind a large oak tree in a forest the sun began to set.
The women spoke while shaken.
"Naruto, you're bleeding" he placed his hand over her mouth as he peeked behind the tree while activating sage mode. He felt that nothing was coming for them yet. He looked towards the women and said sternly
"Shion, if were going to get out of this you're going to have to stay quiet when I say so you know?" She looked away in shame. Naruto used his sage mode for about ten minutes scanning the tried to stay quiet but needed to say what was on her mind. She removed Naruto's hand and said
"Do you regret it? I know you did it for your village, so we wouldn't go to war." Naruto looked down at her and said frantically
"Oi Shion I told you to... no, no I don't. I made you a promise, and I never break a promise… I never go back on my word as a ninja. Now let me keep you safe and get us ou-" he was cut off suddenly by a black and blue spear that went through the tree and straight through his heart.
Shion's eyes grew wide with terror. Her breathing started to get heavy as fear started to overtake her. She screamed out
"Naruto! Please. Please tell me you're just a copy t-that you're a clone!" The color started to leave his face and blood started to drip from his mouth. His vision started to blur from the pain. He could only get out one thing before life started to leave him.
"Damn, shoulda... took Konohamaru with me."