Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine
Last Time
"Furry friend?" Sakura asked in confusion, looking between Shikamaru and Naruto. "C'mon Shikamaru, we need to talk" Asuma said firmly and pulled the lazy genius out of the house, away from the others. Kakashi followed and Kurenai stayed where she was to make sure nobody followed and overheard what they would be discussing.
"What was that about sensei?" Kiba asked, not wanting to be left out, whining a bit. Kurenai shook her head, "I can't tell you, it's a secret, S-ranked" she told him, giving him a look that said not to keep asking her and to forget about what had been said. Kiba perked up at this though, maybe he could get it out of Shikamaru since he knew something.
Naruto watched from where he sat nervously, hoping Shikamaru hadn't figured out what he thought Shikamaru had.
Talking
Thinking
Kyuubi Talking
Kyuubi Thinking
Asuma dragged Shikamaru pretty far from the house, making sure that they couldn't be overheard by anyone.
Kakashi followed close behind. "What do you mean by furry friend Shikamaru? Do you know Naruto's secret?" Kakashi demanded from the boy, starting to feel overprotective of his blonde student.
On the one hand this was bad, if Shikamaru could figure out the secret then there may have been a couple of others who had figured it out.
Thankfully Shikamaru was probably the smartest out of the younger generation so the secret was probably only figured out by him. In addition, Shikamaru knew the secret yet the others had seemed confused by what he'd said, meaning Shikamaru hadn't told anyone, not even his best friend, about what Naruto held.
Shikamaru nodded, "Of course I do, its common sense, I mean first of all Naruto was born on the day of the attack, he has whisker marks on his face, and almost every adult in Konoha seems to dislike him without any particular reason" Shikamaru reported his findings, rolling his eyes.
"And you've told nobody correct?" Kakashi asked, stepping forward threateningly. Shikamaru backed, "No, of course not, there's a reason it's a secret" he said, watching the jounin nervously.
"That's enough Kakashi, he hasn't told anyone" Asuma said firmly, protecting his student from the angry man and placing himself between the two.
Kakashi gave Shikamaru one last glare, "If you're lying and this gets out things will be very unpleasant and this village will be the least of your worries" he threatened before going back to the house.
For a moment it was quiet as Asuma and Shikamaru watched the man leave.
"It's fine Shikamaru, let's go back, Kakashi doesn't mean to be so intimidating, he's just jumpy about whatever we're being attacked by, we all are" Asuma said. Shikamaru nodded, "I know, and I won't tell anyone" he assured his sensei. Asuma smiled and nodded, "I know" he replied.
The two made their way to the others but Shikamaru stopped just outside the house when he saw small scratch marks at the base of the doorframe, both sides. He pulled out a kunai and started to dig at the frame.
"What are you doing?" Ino asked him curiously, diverting everyone's attention from whatever they had been talking about to the lazy genius. "I don't know, these markings are strange for their location, plus they're too deep to have just been normal wear marks" he told her, continuing to pry at the wood.
Chouji took the other side of the doorframe. Soon Shikamaru was able to pull out a small piece of paper. He frowned.
"What's it say?" Ino asked him worriedly. "You should have left when you had the chance, if you run I'll follow. Your nightmare is just beginning and I'm watching you. I'm watching you seer" Shikamaru read.
Right next to him Chouji had run outside to throw up when he uncovered what had been hidden. Hinata moved to see what he'd uncovered and stuck her hand over her mouth to prevent what Chouji had just done.
"Eyes" she said with a tremor in her voice. A couple of the others moved nervously and looked at the find. There were nine human eyes staring up at them from the ground.
The note in Shikamaru's hand burst into flames a second later, making him yelp and drop it to the ground where it turned to ash completely. Asuma looked at his student's hand but it hadn't been burned, Shikamaru had just been surprised.
"We're trapped then" Ino said, starting to panic. She'd wanted to leave after hearing about the first dead body like most of the others but they'd been told to stay put.
"Who's the seer?" Chouji asked coming back in, looking extremely sick. He grabbed his pack and found a water bottle, taking a long drink from it, draining the thing completely. They were all running low on water again and would have to get more soon, hoping they could get out just past the border and be safe long enough to be able to get some.
"I don't buy it" Sasuke said. "What?" Shikamaru asked. "That we can't leave the village. I mean, it's not like anyone's going to follow us all the way to Konoha and attack us with so many ninja around" he said reasonably.
"Unless there is a ghost present" Shino stated. Sasuke shook his head, "I admit the ritual and everything does explain everything, but that doesn't mean that a ghost did them. This could just be a large group of people trying to scare us and pick us off one by one when we're too scared to do anything" he said firmly, talking much more than usual because he wanted his point to get across so they could focus on things he thought were more productive.
"I think I am" Naruto said, everyone turned to look at him. "Are what idiot?" Sakura asked, not seeing how it related to the current discussion. " The seer," Naruto said, "I've been seeing what happened so maybe they think I could do something about them and are trying to keep me from doing anything, like the shadow man from before" he suggested.
"Naruto's probably right, we'll have to try and look out for him at night taking shifts, it'd be better if we did anyway, we don't want people getting hurt if there's an attack some night. Plus, as much as I hate to say it Naruto probably needs to sleep so that he can dream further" Shikamaru said.
Naruto gave a small squeak in fear but tried to compose himself quickly, "Wouldn't it be better if we searched for more things in the village instead of just having me sleep? I mean now that we sort of know what we're looking for we'd be more likely to find it" Naruto said, trying to stay away from the nightmares.
Shikamaru nodded, "I'm not saying you need to sleep all the time, but if your dreams can lead you to some important clues then we'll need you to dream about them" Shikamaru explained. Naruto sighed in defeat.
"Right now we need to search as fast as possible if we're going to be attacked in three days. We're sticking with the ghost theory for now" Kakashi continued, ignoring the glare from the Uchiha. "We'll be splitting up the teams again. We need to cover more area but nobody will go by themselves." Kakashi explained.
He turned to the others, "Alright, Kurenai with Hinata, Kiba with Chouji, Ino with Asuma, Shikamaru with Sakura, Shino and Sasuke, me and Naruto" he listed. He didn't know much about most of them since he'd never worked with them before but figured Hinata needed more protection since she'd already been attacked. He also knew that Sakura definitely wasn't ready for this sort of mission and wanted her with someone like Shikamaru who was quick to think in difficult situations from what he'd heard. Lastly he wanted to make sure that Naruto wasn't attacked and hoped that his presence would keep him safe enough so that they could figure everything out.
"We'll meet here in an hour, if everyone would keep track of the group nearest them then we'll hopefully all be fine" Kakashi instructed and they started their search.
"Come on sensei" Naruto called, running ahead, "Wait, we don't want to miss anything" Kakashi reprimanded lightly. Naruto turned back to him, "I know, and that's why we need to hurry" he whined. Kakashi sighed, Naruto was up to his usual antics.
Chouji and Kiba, and Akamaru carefully crept into a house. "Do they really think this is a good idea?" Kiba asked shakily, referring to their sensei's choice. Akamaru was shaking heavily in his partner's sweatshirt, careful not to whimper and draw anyone to their location. "I guess, but even so we don't really have a choice do we?" Chouji asked back.
There was a light switch on their right and they tried it, only to find that this one, like the others, was out of power as well. "Do you have a flashlight?" Kiba asked, not being as prepared as he should have been. "Yeah," Chouji handed his to the dog user.
Kiba lead the way to the basement and they made their way down the stairs, flinching at every creak the steps made. When they reached the bottom they stuck close to each other.
They surveyed the area and were about to continue onto a room they'd seen further ahead when Kiba tripped, the flashlight falling from his hand before slamming into the ground and going out. As soon as the lights disappeared Akamaru freaked out, snarling loudly at something both boys felt but couldn't see.
Kurenai and Hinata had chosen a house with no basement and were exploring the second floor currently, having moved through the first quickly. "Are you doing alright Hinata?" Kurenai questioned. Hinata didn't look or feel fine but nodded in determination. "I'm fine sensei, I can't just sit and let everyone get hurt so I'll help" she said.
Kurenai smiled at the response, "Alright then, come on, we're almost done" she told the girl and they pushed open the last door, gasping at what they saw.
Ino stuck close to Asuma and looked around nervously. "You know Ino, even though this is a dangerous situation, I need you to focus on the original purpose of this mission. You're very rude to everyone but the Uchiha it seems. I saw you glaring at Shikamaru for making all those suggestions that the Uchiha might be wrong. I'm not saying Shikamaru's right, but you can't just agree with everything the boy you admire says" Asuma lectured.
Ino sighed, "Sensei, now's a bad time for this, fine, I'll think about it. Can we focus on this so we don't end up like those things that attacked us?" she asked in exasperation.
Asuma grumbled a bit but complied, pushing open the closest door which caused both of them to cover their noses at the stench and Ino to flinch horribly at the sight.
Shino and Sasuke didn't speak as they walked, aside from Sasuke's slight grumbling now and then about how there was no way ghosts existed. The house they were walking through was completely empty, it looked much more vacant than all the other houses they'd visited before, due to complete lack of furniture in it.
Shikamaru and Sakura were moving cautiously through the rooms. In reality this pairing had been a bad plan. Though Kakashi knew about Shikamaru's intellect he didn't know about his propensity to flee or give up when conflict arose.
"Are you going to open the door?" Sakura asked him nervously when they stopped in front of one. "I don't think there's anything there" Shikamaru replied quickly, turning around and moving back towards the door. Sakura grabbed him by the arm as he passed. "I'm not going to open it, I can't die here, I have to marry Sasuke-kun, you do it" she whined, pressing into his arm painfully.
Shikamaru looked at her pleadingly but she didn't budge, pushing the reluctant boy in front of the door. Shikamaru took a deep breath, pulling his arm out of her hands. He hesitated once more before reaching for the handle.
Kakashi and Naruto were in the house behind Sakura and Shikamaru. "There's nothing here that I can sense" Naruto said in slight disappointment. "Come on, we have to check the entire house even if you don't sense anything" Kakashi told him, starting to get irritated.
"Sensei" Naruto suddenly squeaked, pointing to the door on their left. Kakashi frowned, the door handle was moving. "Is someone there?" he called carefully, stepping back just in case. He knew he shouldn't alert anyone to their presence until they entered, but with everything that had been happening he figured if it was someone dangerous then his voice might chase them off since if it was a person they had been very careful to keep hidden.
"No" a voice called back, equally as squeaky as Naruto's had been a moment before. The no was quickly followed by shouting and a yelp of pain. "You idiot, that's my sensei" Sakura's voice was now identified. The door swung open to reveal Shikamaru and Sakura to them. Shikamaru was on the floor with a bruise on his head and Sakura was standing there next to him looking innocent.
Kakashi sighed, "Sakura, please don't hit your partner" he requested. "But he's such a coward" she whined, ignoring the fact that she was the same if not worse than he was.
"Did you two find anything?" Kakashi asked, ignoring the two's incompatibility for now. "No, nothing, thankfully" Shikamaru muttered. Sakura glared down at him. "If we want to get out of here alive then we have to find something" she shrieked at him.
"You find something, I'll hide and you can come get me when it's all over" Shikamaru told her in irritation, pushing himself to his feet.
Sakura walked over to her two team members. "I think I might be better off with Naruto even at this point" she said blankly. Kakashi sighed, "Sakura, I'll try and work something out for you tomorrow, it's starting to get dark out anyway so we should get back to the others" Kakashi told them.
Shikamaru yawned widely, "Good, I'd like to work with someone less violent if that's okay" he said and then froze, pointing behind Kakashi. Kakashi turned and his eyes widened.
"Sensei," Sakura whispered in fear. Naruto was struggling. Both of them were being held tightly by one of the corpses and it was dragging them backwards, into a room Naruto and Kakashi hadn't checked yet. Kakashi immediately took action, throwing two kunai at the wrists of the thing.
This time it worked, slicing them off. Sakura and Naruto both worked the hands off which still gripped them and the corpse vanished into the shadows behind them.
"Are you both alright?" Kakashi asked. Sakura and Naruto nodded, panting heavily. "We need to get out of here, find theā¦" he started but stopped when he'd turned fully to find Shikamaru no longer behind him.
"Shikamaru" Kakashi called. "What's going on?" Sakura asked, looking around for signs of the lazy boy.
"I don't know, we have to find him fast" Kakashi said and they started their search.
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