This is the final part of the Finding Shikamau arc of the story. In the next chapter the gang will be heading off to find another one of their missing friends. Try to guess who before you reach the end of the chapter.
(THE ANSWER IS SOOO NOT AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER SO NO CHEATING XP) nah jk jk
But yeah, almost the end of the school year. Dang I'm gonna be a junior. Sophomore year was so relaxing. Now we have to prepare for college and stuff, if we aren't already. gah... I don't wanna ._.
But none of my complaints are any of your concerns so READ ON! IGNORE ME PLEASE!
Oh and as an answer to some of the reviews, meh MAYBE Sakura will be the only girl. Maybe she won't? That's one of the themes of the story that I'll go into later. And yes Hinata will appear some time soon. Maybe next chapter? Maybe later on.
OH! But just a question: should Hinata have feelings for Naruto or Kiba? Personally I like pairing her off with Kiba but I want to ask you guys since, well, this fic's for your enjoyment. So... YEAH I'M SORRY FOR INTERUPTING AGAIN READ ON!
By next morning, all of our stuff was already getting packed, not that it was much to begin with. Sasuke and Naruto were taking care of that downstairs. Meanwhile I was still upstairs, getting dressed back into my school uniform. I don't know why but there's something about this set of clothes that just made me cling to wearing them for the sake of, well, something important. Apparently that sake applied to Naruto and Sasuke as well.
A quick breath escaped my lips as I took one last decent look in the closet mirror. My school uniform was now blood-stain free, finally. The tiny rips and tears I had sewn back together this morning for us. were hardly visible. I admit, I missed wearing this, even the long dorky skirt which Naruto still insisted I trim shorter. Aside from that Shikamaru had managed to persuade me to loose the school shoes and get on some decent combat boots. I kind of didn't have a choice after he, uh, took one of my shoes and threw it out the window and into his backyard. He warned me that his backyard had even worse traps. Sure maybe he was bluffing, but hey, I'm not that desperate for an old brown leather shoe.
"Are you sure this is enough food?" Naruto asked for probably the billionth time that hour.
Sasuke set the cardboard box down a second time, looking at his blond companion. "We're taking only the necessary, not a buffet."
"Hey! Food's necessary. What so we bring like three bags of ammunition and one box of chips? How lame is that?"
"Be lucky you're even getting that much food," Shikamaru remarked, appearing from the basement with one last box, setting that one too down on the table with the other three. "Okay, so you have the medical stuff, the food, and the new gadgets I assume should work and not blow up."
"Yeah, thanks a lot for the supplies," Sasuke said. "Naruto go bring the van around."
"What?" Naruto jumped. "Why me?
"You got a problem with it?"
"Yeah I have a problem! Barren city full of zombies going 'ugh! Magh! Bleugh!' a-and that 'super nice' front lawn Shikamaru's got going out there!"
"There is an off button, you know," Shikamaru frowned, his hands in his pockets again. "Just go and get your van. You'll be fine."
Naruto did one last stubborn glare before taking the offered keys Sasuke was holding out and marching out the front door. "Anyway," Sasuke sighed, turning to Shikamaru. "You sure you don't wanna come? Last chance."
"I'm not changing my mind," Shikamaru declined again, only to receive a defeated shrug from Sasuke, who picked up two of the cardboard boxes and made his way towards the door. Before he took his fourth step, he and Shikamaru heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs, and both turned around, seeing me with my bat and a bag strap across my chest.
"You ready?" called Sasuke to break the silence.
"Yeah." I picked up two of the remaining boxes on the table and went to follow Sasuke. I passed Shikamaru without a glance, trying my best to show no emotion.
It didn't take long for us to get to the van where Naruto pulled up. The four boxes of supplies were secured in the back with a rope, courtesy of Sasuke. I sat on the edge of it, a somewhat sad expression worn on my face. When Sasuke noticed, he took a pause in tying the ropes. "You alright?"
I nodded to assure him. "Just kinda sad we couldn't bring Shikamaru with us."
Sasuke began a second rope around the boxes. "I told you earlier on not to expect much." With a frown I lowered my head a little, Sasuke suddenly feeling a tad regretful for saying that. From the front of the van, Naruto mouthed 'nice' to the Uchiha with a pissed off expression, to which Sasuke responded with a glare. "At least he's alive," Sasuke pointed out right after, trying to cheer me up.
"But for how long?" I answered back in a low tone. I know Shikamaru's smart and he has the resources to survive in a place like this, but what worries me is if he'll want to. Then without us here to make sure he stays alright... will he be alright?"
Sasuke finished the final knot. "Alright Naruto, start the van up," Sasuke called to the front. Hearing the engine start, I lifted my legs into the van as Sasuke climbed in as well, closing the two back doors. I turned my head slightly to the side to see past the back window. With one last look at Shikamaru's house, I saw Shikamaru at his door, seeing us off.
"He has the same gloomy look you do," Sasuke commented, making me turn towards him. Naruto pressed the pedal and we drove off, mentally saying our goodbyes to our departed friend.
As Naruto drove, within minutes he took great notice of the silence in the back and glanced up to the rear view mirror. "Ne ne, cheer up, Sakura! We just had a good night's rest and we have food now! And leaving Shikamaru behind won't be all that bad-" Naruto stopped talking on account of Sasuke's intense glare from behind, which could be reflected all the way to the rear view mirror. "Or I could shut up now yeah."
In the midst of driving through the ruins of Chiba, I noticed through the back window a zombie walking down the street. Then a second, and not too long after that a third. "Guys, we've got a couple of zombies coming up," I warned unenthusiastically.
Sasuke heeded. "Naruto, keep driving until we hit a roadblock."
"You don't think I don't know that," Naruto muttered, getting upset with Sasuke's constant orders. "Either way we have a full tank of gas so speeding this time won't be much of a problem. Hold on you guys!" With Naruto's crazed driving again, the van shifted on its next turn. Sasuke was smart to hold onto the front seats this time as my shoulder collided with the boxes. Through the front and back windows, zombies could be seen chasing at us in low numbers slowly rising. Naruto ran over an occasional few, but I knew by experience it wouldn't be long until we found a crowd we'd have to fight through to escape.
"Up ahead near the city exit," Naruto announced, seeing a large crowd in a narrow street. "You think we can drive through them?"
"Not if you want our windshield broken for the third time," Sasuke lectured, preparing his sword at his belt.
It was only now I realized how narrow this street truly was. It was a long line of zombies, at least one block's length. "One of us will need to stay in the van to drive. Once we leave we can't go all the way back for it."
"No way am I staying in to drive this hunk of metal. I have a score to settle with these guys," Naruto glared with his thumb pointing outside.
"I guess I'll stay then," I said with a worried look.
I was received with somewhat shocked looks by the guys. "You sure?" Sasuke asked. "I mean you've never really driven this thing before."
"How hard can it be?" I lied with a faking smile. In all honesty I was a bit too distracted to fight any zombies, and I didn't want to prove myself right by leaving the van. "Besides Sasuke, you're too good a fighter to stay in here. Naruto needs you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto grimly asked.
"Just come on," Sasuke ordered, pushing the blond out his side door with his hockey stick. Sasuke went to jump over too the front seats to follow Naruto, but not before giving me on last look of concern, which was quite rare might I add. "You'll be alright in here?"
I sent a positive smile. "Mhm." I knew I couldn't fool Sasuke with a fake smile, but what was I supposed to do? Cry and beg don't leave me? Before he left he sent me a comforting half smile and jumped out, shutting slamming the door shut. Now alone, I jumped over to the front seats and locked all the doors, situating myself in the driver's position: feet above pedals, hands on wheel, and total concentration.
I watched Naruto and Sasuke fight the army of zombies outside like a super powered duo. Though the fear of one of them getting bit still lingered around in the back of my mind. "I swear it amazes me sometimes how well those two work together."
Seeing them slowly create a path, I hesitantly pressed forward with the van. At the pace we were going it was going to take a while, but it was progress. At least that's what I thought. Within a matter of minutes of penetrating the undead crowd, the van was surrounded by zombies trying to get in from all directions. Banging noises echoed the now-extremely small vehicle as I tried my best to remain calm in our newfound situation. "Well Sakura, it's either in here or out there." Another loud bang from the roof made me wince and grab my bat from the side.
"AGH!" Naruto jumped and took out a good number of the zombies around him, only for Sasuke to take down one behind Naruto. "You know, this plan sounded a lot cooler when Sakura first said it," shouted Naruto, doing a kick to a zombie coming up to him. "I've seen some ugly situations in my life but this is just nuts."
"I know," agreed Sasuke, quite surprised himself, fending off an upcoming zombie before decapitating it.
Naruto then smirked. "Ya thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I highly doubt that," Sasuke responded, slightly angering Naruto. "So what is it."
"It's only a couple meters away until we reach free land," Naruto guessed. "If we can just quickly run through and take down as much as we can, maybe we can actually get out of here.
Sasuke scoffed. "Eh, it's worth a shot.
Facing forward in their small clearing, Naruto and Sasuke prepared to run on three. "THREE!" With separate battle cries the two teens took off, smashng and cutting heads across the one-way street. It was almost comical the way their plan carried out.
I watched from the driver's seat with an unsettling look, and a short sweatdropped came on the side of my head as well. "Those two..." I regained my comosture. "Well, better hurry." Before I could step on the gas pedal, another unseen zombie landed on the hood of the van, scaring me beyond wits. The zombie's mouth opened, showing his rotted yellow overgrown teeth and his empty eye sockets with rotting skin. Ew?
At this point I didn't know what to do. Can't attack it from in here. I figured I could just have the van accelerate through and hope the zombie falls off, but I was afraid of what he'd do then. Before I could think, all of a sudden the zombie was tackled off of the van's front by a flying thrown garbage can. I sat frozen in my seat, wondering what just happened.
The next thing I know, I started to hear the faint sound of a familiar tune - an ice cream truck? I blinked my eyes, racking my mind. "Huh?" But I was proven not insane, as all of the zombies began to limp and walk towards the source of the sound, and away from me and the van. I sat in my seat, trying to stop the shaking of my still paralyzed body. "W-What...?"
It didn't take very long for just about all of the zombies around me to have vanished. There were barely any in sight except for the ones farther away near where Sasuke and Naruto and disappeared to.
Unlocking the van, I cautiously opened my side's door and stepped out, looking around. I was completely alone, at least I thought I was. I looked to where all of the other zombies had gathered around, near a run down ice cream truck on the side of the road. "But how...?"
"Take a wild guess," said Shikamaru, walking up beside me. With him in sight I sent a lost look towards him. His attire was still the same as when we left him, and his extremely bored facial expression hadn't changed, either. "You guys owe me for rewiring that ice cream truck. I almost got killed getting out of there."
"S-Shikamaru..." Seeing him in front of me I had no idea how to react. "What are you doing out here I- I thought you-"
A sudden glint in his eye shone, and he jumped over my head, finally taking his hands out of his pockets. Behind me I saw him attack an oncoming zombie with his infamous trench knives encircling his knuckles. Within a blink of an eye, Shikamaru alone had slit the throat of my attacker and its head soon fell over, spilling a small amount of dead blood. Shikamaru landed on the black hood of the van, turning to face me. The look on my face must've been priceless to someone like him. "You owe me for that, too. Now I have zombie blood on my knives."
Despite my obvious shock and surprise, I was quite thankful Shikamaru was here now. However instead of bearing a wide thankful grin I kept my stoic look. "What made you change your mind?"
He took a sideways glance, still on top of the van. "Let's just say I found that lost motivation you were blabbering on about before." He cracked a smile. "I may not have much of a reason to keep living, but I do have a reason to make sure you guys don't die before finding the others." It was then I was able to truly have peace at mind about Shikamaru. "Besides, it might be fun, seeing how they all turned out. Maybe one of them turned out to be a bigger loser than I am. If that's the case, then going through all this crap could be worth while."
I kept in a chuckle. "So I assume you'll be coming with us now?"
"You can say that," he replied, looking ahead and seeing Sasuke and Naruto fending for them selves near Chiba's city exit. "Now get back in the van. I'll take care of any of the others trailing behind you."
Deciding not to question him for now, I nodded and climbed back into the van. Stepping on the gas pedal, I sped off without hesitation, and surprisingly, Shikamaru was running right behind the van at top speed as well from what I could see in the rear view mirror. "You're just full of surprises aren't you, you sarcastic jerk."
Sasuke found the speeding van coming up to where he and Naruto were. "Here she comes."
Naruto grinned, looking back. "It's about time. Huh?" Naruto saw another figure running behind the van. "What is that? Another zombie?" He narrowed his eyes. "Wait, no way. It's, Shikamaru?"
"Is that so," said Sasuke, not believing what Naruto had just stated aloud. But he was right, the Nara was running right behind Sakura. "Well what do you know, it is him."
It took a couple of seconds of staring in disbelief, but Naruto let out a huge laugh, rubbing the bottom of his nose with his signature grin. "I swear he's the most indecisive guy in the world, even before this dramatic apocalypse."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
By nightfall, the van had been parked outside an abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere. Luckily the just-as-abandoned mini mart was open for our disposal. We managed to snag a decent dinner there for us in the van. Inside the vehicle, small flashlights and lanterns illuminated the vehicle.
"It sure is nice to actually have a peaceful night for once," I remarked, eating a chocolate bar while leaning against the front seat were Naruto was sprawled over. Sasuke and sat across from me with our lamp in the center of the back of the van.
"What happened to Shikamaru, though?" Naruto asked tiredly, having kept the whole front of the van to himself. "Does it really take a guy this long to take a piss?"
Curiously I glanced outside the van's broken windows. In the midst of the darkness I saw Shikamaru sitting outside alone by the gas station's mini mart. He was starring at something, that or he was deep in thought. "I'll be right back," I told, taking a flashlight with me as I exited through the back of the van, leaving the Sasuke and Naruto to hopefully not kill each other.
As I walked up to Shikamaru, he once again noticed my presence and took his view away from the sky. "What."
"Just checking up on you," I defended, standing above him. "It's dangerous to be outside this late."
"What could happen to me? As long as Naruto keeps his foot off the van's horn I have nothing to worry about."
My eyebrows furrowed and instead I turned around, looking up at the night sky too. The moon was visible through some dark clouds, and many stars were out once again. "You wanna be alone?" I asked, feeling I was intruding on his privacy.
He responded with a calm shrug, and with that I took a seat down on the ground near him, holding my flashlight over my knees. It was kind of uncomfortable but I adjusted. "Do you remember back there," he began, "when I told you about how my parents are most likely gone now and how I'm probably just better off?"
"I'm going to suppose that was just an act...?"
"No kidding," Shikamaru said with a small chuckle. "I really do miss them. And I know for a fact they're really gone. They're not the kind of people who'd survive in this kind of place. Same goes for Asuma. I'd never tell him, but I miss him, too. " He paused for a moment. "I also want to apologize to you."
"Hm?" I blinked. "For what?"
By now Shikamaru seemed a little uncomfortable. Kind of like Sasuke sometimes when he finds himself in a situation he'd father not be in. "Last night in my basement, when we were talking about Ino..."
"Well, better where she is now than if she were here. Earth is pretty much hell by now in this state."
I stood up and shoved the rolling chair aside, it making a slight crashing sound when it hit the wall. "Shut up," I muttered, holding onto the picture tightly in my right hand. "Just... shut up."
"Hey, you can't change what's happened already," Shikamaru said as if this were a lecture. "Listen, I'm not happy either okay, but it's probably better this way."
"Better?" I retorted, feeling myself about to cry, but I shielded that with anger, a strong up front to cover up anything. "How in the world is it better? How, could it possibly be better with Ino dead? HUH?"
I remembered that scene clearly in my head, and I had to admit remembering bothered me. Then I couldn't help reliving those angered thoughts, too. "Why did you say those things then? Do you honestly think it's better that she's...gone?"
"I meant that it's better this way... that she died then," Shikamaru reworded slowly. "Because I have no idea how I would've reacted if she died in front of me herself." At that moment my eyebrows lessened up and my grip on my arms loosened as well. "I denied it a lot back then, but I'd always been close with Ino."
"I know," I said mournfully.
"But like I said... there's nothing we can do about it," he said in a short daze. A moment of silence ensured. "... I know I probably shouldn't be asking this, but... how did she die?" My heart stopped. "I can list the array of possibilities, but-"
"But you need to know," I finished in the same tone. He nodded, and I contemplated over what I should say. That I couldn't protect her? That I couldn't save her? That I was the one who officially ended her life and spilled her blood?
Before I knew it I already had tears dripping down my face. I refused to sob - not in front of Shikamaru. This was the guy I always had to show a rivaling brave face for. I couldn't let him see me cry, much less for Ino. And so I just left them falling on my arms as I hugged my knees. "I'm so sorry, Shikamaru..."
"Hey," he started with an assuring hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to always pretend to be brave, you know."
At that, I began to sob again. I hate how I'm such a cry baby, though. "It's all my fault! Ino's dead because of me!" I muffled through my cry. "I wasn't protecting her and she was bit by one of those monsters, Shikamaru! It's my fault!"
"It's not."
"Shut up it is! Then before she could turn she told me to smash her head and I - I - I -" My voice had begun breaking all the more than it had already. "I'm sorry, Shikamaru..." In the midst of it all Shikamaru's arm pulled me over as I just continued to cry and break down, out of guilt, sadness, some kind of mad mix between the two. It was a horrible feeling. When you're in such a hell of a world, you seek comfort, you hide away the bad stuff. But when you're at your most comfortable, your most vulnerable... that's when all the bad comes back to you like a bomb.
Eventually I managed to pull myself back together and I went to try and wipe my face with my shirt. "Sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it. It's not like that was the first time I've seen you cry," Shikamaru pointed out bluntly once more, making me look at him with a confused look. "I doubt any of the others realized it back then, but you were always one to be crying, at least on the inside," he started. "Well maybe Sasuke noticed but hey, that's just me."
"Why Sasuke," I pouted with a look.
A half-smile came up on the Nara's face. "Eh, just my guess, like I said." He returned to that serious stare. "But, I was right wasn't I? You knew how to hide things well back then. Even your own problems."
I couldn't help but glance down guiltily. It's been a while since I've thought about that, about my Mom. Ino was the only other person who ever found out my secret about my back. And Shikamaru wasn't slow, either. If anyone out of our group it was probably him who was the most suspicious of me and my lying about my fake smiles. "I still sorry I couldn't bring Ino here..."
"It's alright," replied Shikamaru, leaning back against the gas station wall. "... It's nights like this I'd wonder how she was, back in Tokyo. I also wondered, if she thought about me too." He gave a small scoff. "Man, all this cheezy stuff must be getting to me."
I shook my head. "No. It's nice, how you still thought about her after all this time. She wanted to see all of us again so we could all laze around just like this... together." Thinking of Ino I looked up towards the sky again, my eyes still red but no longer sad. It's been so long since I've had such happy thoughts of Ino, and for the first time I let happy tears flow from once more from the corners of my eyes. "I miss her."
Then as if sensing it I looked down to Shikamaru, who I saw leaning his head against his arms folded behind his head. With the clouds moving in front of the moon some more shadows crept in amongst the visible night, over the top half of Shikamaru's face where I could no longer see. However what I did manage to catch a glimpse of was a small sparkle near where his eye would be, and a tiny stream of a tear fell down the side of his face. "I... miss her, too."
And for a while we just stayed like that under the presence of the stars, filled with thoughts of our wonderful, deceased friend. Meanwhile back in the van Naruto watched from the back window, his eyes narrowed in a tired suspicion. "What are those two talking about...?"
"Give it a rest with the spying and go to sleep. You're annoying me," said Sasuke whose eyes had been closed for a while, him leaning comfortably against the side of the van.
"You know you want to know, too, teme," Naruto muttered with a glare to the Uchiha. "Sakura's off with that totally moody guy. Aren't you at least a bit curious as to whether or not he made a move on her?"
"It's none of my business what they do," Sasuke continued to say with his shut eyes. However he managed to open one and look at the blond. "...Besides, what we should be worrying about is where we're supposed to be going after this in the morning?"
The news of this didn't startle Naruto very much, but it did somewhat catch him off guard that it'd be mentioned now. "Sakura told me that we'd be heading west to Nagoya. It's where Neji's family was supposed to have moved."
"That's right," Sasuke remembered, glancing back down. "Going through all the crap we went through just finding Shikamaru was enough trouble."
"And now we'll be doing it all over again," completed Naruto, holding his loose fist against the van's door window. It's kind of pathetic how we went about all this. It also makes you wonder how much more we can take of all this. Our limits, our expectations. We don't know anything. So why is it that we keep going, may you ask? Well... I don't know either.
