Fish Bird

By The Eternity Dragon aka AcaciaBrown

Chapter 14: Hate this place

A/N: I'm really sorry this didn't come out sooner, the other story Muse (I don't know if you guys have read it) keeps becoming a dumping ground for all the things I don't get to write in Fish Bird (i.e Itachi) so I'm really enjoying myself over there. I was also sick this week! Woe, or you would have had this chapter update yesterday instead of today. Hope you guys enjoy it anyway, Fish Bird is exactly one year old today!

"This whole business is messy, what of it?" Shikamaru said testily, wiping the dirt from his hands onto the sides of his trousers and frowning over at where Lee and Choji had last been seen charging off in the wrong direction from where Shikamaru wanted them to go. He'd sent Neji off in pursuit a few minutes before whilst the rest of them prepared to set up camp.

"Well, nothing really," Kiba said mutely while looking over his shoulder to where Hinata and Ino were standing and sorting out the campfire. "I just thought you were looking a bit harassed, was all."

Shikamaru gave Kiba a dirty look that he missed completely and let out a long taxing sigh.

"It's more difficult then it looks to keep Neji, Lee, and Choji completely in the dark to what we're actually doing. Especially Neji… he didn't make Jounin at such a young age for no reason at all."

"Hm, yeah." Was Kiba's less than enthusiastic response; his hand on Shikamaru's shoulder as the tried to stand on tiptoes to get a better view of Hinata through the trees

"Really difficult to get around Neji, still, you're still smarter than him probably."

"Thank you." Was the sarcastic response that Kiba failed even to hear, too focused on craning his neck forwards so he could no doubt check out Hinata's considerable cleavage at a better angle.

"Look!" Shikamaru snapped as Kiba's hands spanned down the back of his neck. He was tired of Kiba using his shoulder as a ladder as well as the lingering feeling of being physically molested.

"Why don't you go over there and ogle her? I promise you'll get a much clearer view, and on the plus side you wont have to pay for my back surgery."

"I can't go over there and ogle her," his friend replied out of the side of his mouth, "because she'd definitely see me doing it, or worse, what if Neji caught me eyeing up his fiancé?"

"What makes you think he can't see you now?"

Kiba abruptly let go of Shikamaru's shoulder and fell over.

Shikamaru laughed, and turned around to finish the job of pitching the tents.

"She'd pick you over him any day you know."

"She would not!" Was the angry hiss that picked itself up from the floor and helped to hold the tent pole steady whilst Shikamaru bent to tie it in place.

"He's quite ridiculously in love with her."

"So areyou."

"Yes…well…" Kiba coloured, suddenly embarrassed and looking round for Akamaru who was to be found several meters away, belly in the dirt, chewing on the side of a log.

"I'm not about to launch myself into the middle of a savage love triangle."

"Huh, well," Shikamaru intermitted holding the string in his mouth as he tried to thread it through the canvas lining, "has it ever occurred to you that you might be part of one anyway?"

"Oh, no thank you." Was the auburn haired youth's stern reply, "I've seen what love triangles look like, and it's more angst then I can deal with myself."

"Who do you know that's in a love triangle?" Shikamaru asked, levering himself up in a quick brisk movement and handing Kiba a long metal pin.

"Naruto." Kiba said darkly from the depths of his brown eyes, still looking fierce and concerned all at the same time.

"Oh, I forgot." There was a hint of sadness in Shikamaru's voice as he banged the pin into place with his foot and used a small measure of chakra to hold it in place in the wet and slippy mud.

"Speaking of which," Kiba said in hoarse low tones, hands on knees so he was squatting and leaning into Shikamaru, "I thought the deal was he was supposed to have contacted us by now. We haven't heard a single thing from him since that scribbled note in that hotel room, 'Gone North, getting maps, heading over the ridge.' I thought we were supposed to have intercepted, heard each other's plans…you know, plotted?"

"Kiba," Shikamaru said in tones that were close to exasperation, "I don't know how to break this to you, but you are not a spy. There are hundreds of reasons why Naruto might not have contacted us yet. I mean, there's hardly ample opportunity to do it in a forest now is there? Bar writing messages into wood bark, but then that's something that anyone could see, not just us, meaning you and I. Remember we're still trying to keep Neji, Lee, and Choji in the dark. They actually believe we're trying to recapture Sasuke and Naruto, so neither of them can come walking into a clearing and ask for a quick chat now can they? When they need to find us, they'll give a sign. Trust me."

Kiba compressed his mouth into a line of resignation and stuck his hands into the depths of his coat pocket, "We'll if you're happy with that explanation Maru, I guess I can't argue with that…"

Shikamaru stamped the last pin into the ground, "Do you think I like guess work?" he with said dry sarcasm, "But you asked a question and I answered it to the best of my ability. They left ahead of us and we're tracking them, the rest of these guys aren't afraid of whatever the hell this 'thing' is that we're facing, and so far we haven't seen a hide nor a hair of it and I'd like to keep it that way. So unless Naruto is about to invent a new form of mobile communication, I know as much as you on the subject. So don't ask stupid questions."

"I can't promise anything," Kiba said seriously with a small but gentle smile playing across his lips, "but I can try. I just seem to be spending half of my sleeping hours and most of my waking ones worrying about him and Sasuke."

"Well that makes two of us, apart from the Sasuke part. I'm really just worrying about Naruto."

"You're such a bad liar you know."

"Don't you preach to me." Was Shikamaru's almost testy snap, although his eyes were soft as he stood with his arms folded, regarding their upright tent.

"Yes I'm sorry," Kiba laughed giving him a mock bow. "In this relationship you do all the preaching and it's my job to sit and nod when Naruto's not here and do exactly to opposite of what you say when he is."

Shikamaru snorted derisively, making his way over to the centre of the clearing where a circle of rocks around a small pile of dry tinder wood lay. In the distance they could hear the low murmur of Neji yelling at Lee for going in the wrong direction and the burble of laughter from behind them as both Ino and Hinata found something simultaneously funny.

"I guess I'm just doing my bit for society," Shikamaru continued with reserve, looking about him for the box of matches he'd put down earlier, "converting one heathen at a time."

Kiba gave Shikamaru one of his savage grins, his fingers on Akamaru's head, scratching his beloved dog fondly behind the ears and finding the box of matches in his mouth.

Shikamaru was not pleased to receive a slobbery box of matches with bite marks in it, but several grumpy moments later the first fiery licks of flame sprang up and across the dry tinder as the timber crackled and spat, filling the small clearing with the homely smell of wood smoke.

"How long do you think this will last?" Shikamaru asked quietly as Hinata and Ino walked towards them with uncooked dinner in hand and Lee, Choji, and Neji emerged from the undergrowth looking disgruntled, dirty, and ravenous.

"Until we get into deep water…" was Kiba's enigmatic reply, "until we hear word from Naruto. You're hardly pushing them to look for those two; pushing them enough each day maybe, but it's not exactly the sprint of our lives. We know they're in the area, there's scent evidence as well as footprints, but enough confusion as not to know their general location. This forest is covered in scent, old smells, new smells, familiar smells, strange smells…"

The stick Shikamaru had been using to poke the fire with snapped suddenly and he turned round sharply with a dangerously keen look on his face, "What strange smells?" he asked abruptly, dark slanted eyes all seriousness.

Kiba's mouth compressed and he gnawed his bottom lip, "Every place has new smells Maru, and you don't have to worry until Akamaru raises his hackles."

He rubbed Akamaru's belly, a fine itchy scratchy noise emerging from the canine's course, brittle hair, "When he starts getting worried about it, I start getting worried about it."

"I could eat a horse Ino!" Lee projected over the fire elbowing a seemingly uncomfortable and embarrassed Neji to sit next to Hinata whilst taking a spot around the campfire himself.

"We've come a long way today and not seen a sight of our quarry, it's very disheartening I have to say. But as Gai sensei would say,'Tomorrow is another day!'"

"Well for tonight Lee," Ino told him with a saucy smile, "there are beans and a few helpings of canned meat."

"There might be a Horse in that…" Shikamaru said with quiet sarcasm making Kiba laugh, but Ino, as she had been doing all month, and ignored him.

"And for desert there's canned Fruit Salad for everyone apart from Shikamaru who has very kindly volunteered to eat the last can of preserved peaches."

"I'd rather die, thank you!" Was Shikamaru's sudden but adamant response as he sat up abruptly, looking outraged.

"Well good," she said with a final toss of her silky blonde hair, "as long as you do it quietly."

Hinata, whom had taken her place between both Neji and Kiba, moved herself forwards sensing the beginnings of a heated argument and quite possibly a brawl (to which Shikamaru would lose simply because he refused to fight Ino ever, even when she presented him with a physical obstacles…such as her fists) and said evenly, "I'll eat them, I liked the preserved Peaches."

"Hinata that's a lie!" Kiba burst out looking mildly impressed and disgusted at the same time as though she'd had offered herself forwards into a ritual containing human sacrifice.

"Yes that is a lie, she shouldn't have to eat them," was Ino's heated response as she rounded on Shikamaru, who looked slightly quailed but stood his ground as if caught between a rock and a hard place. "You, on the other hand, being team captain, have to eat them."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Neji muttered quietly to no one in particular and rolled his eyes.

"I'll eat them." Said Lee, trying to be helpful and missing the frantic waving of the arms from Kiba and the vigorous head shaking from Choji.

"You keep out of this!" Ino snapped ferociously at him, her blue eyes ablaze as Shikamaru sighed.

"Why can't you eat them?" He asked evenly, "You used to be quite fond of them I seem to remember, a long time ago."

Ino paused for a moment, as if she'd lost her footing and had stumbled backwards a few paces as she recalled something.

"Ino can't eat them." Hinata said in a small voice, as if she wasn't sure if she was allowed to speak at all, "The ones we've been given seem to be making everyone feel sick. Ino's already been feeling sick and I don't want her to feel sicker."

"What do you mean you've been feeling sick?" Shikamaru asked with an abrupt sharpness, looking at her with narrowed eyes. "You're not ill are you?"

"Don't be absurd." Ino said flippantly, like it was a matter of little importance. But she'd turned away from him to fiddle with something unimportant behind her back, and he wasn't convinced.

"When have you been feeling sick?" He pressed, not caring that everyone was suddenly staring at them with alighted interest and not a little fascination. Ino continued to fiddle with her back turned to him. Finally, she produced a cooking pot and dumped the meat and beans into it before placing in the fire and tucked her hair neatly behind her ears with an off-handed shrug of her small shoulders.

"In the mornings mostly," Hinata said, with a little hesitance. "This morning, yesterday morning, and the morning before that."

"Hinata!" Ino hissed, looking both upset and outraged at the same time.

"I'm just worried…" was Hinata's almost inaudibly reply, looking almost as if she wanted to cry. Without thinking, Kiba put his hand on hers and leant over to bury his nose in her hair.

Neji shifted slightly, turned, and gave him a cold look.

"I'll be fine," Ino insisted, twisting her hands on her lap, "its probably just period cramps."

"Okay, that's too much information." Kiba said, raising his hands in the air and looking vaguely horrified.

The rest of dinner passed without too much drama. Although as predicted, an argument did break out over the can of preserved peaches, which was then handled by Neji who declared (after Hinata offered to eat them for the fifth time in a row) that it was unfit for human consumption and threw it behind a tree.

It wasn't before Shikamaru had organized Neji to be on watch first, followed by Kiba and Akamaru, then Lee, then himself, and whilst everyone else was preparing to lay down for the night (somehow he and Kiba were sharing a tent again) did he walk over quite calmly to Ino who was sitting with Hinata going through their medical supplies and told Hinata with his hands in his pockets and a look of seriousness on his face asked politely if she could leave them alone for a minute. Hinata didn't leave until after she asked Ino if she was okay with that and Ino answered by giving her one of those bright smiles, clutching her knees saying of course it was perfectly fine. When they were finally left alone, neither of them spoke for a good long minute.

"Have we got enough of everything?" Shikamaru asked casually, sitting down next to Ino and peering into the contents of the medical box.

"Oh, there are plenty of gauze, bandages, blood pills, energy pills, and that sort of thing," was Ino's falsely bright reply. "I could just about handle it if one or two of you sustain a major injury, but if we're waging war…."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

"Mmm, lets."

Shikamaru scratched behind his ear, his head tilting to the right, looking almost nervous.

"Ino," he began, but she interrupted him suddenly fierce.

"It'sjust a stomach bug Shikamaru, don't be silly."

"But you don't know do you? What if you're…" his voice dropped suddenly and in the dim flickering lights from the distance camp fire and the soft gentle light of the moon and stars he looked pale.

"What if you're pregnant?"

"That's enough!" She snapped at him, slamming the lid back down on medical supply box.

"I haven't even said anything yet!" Was his quick reply, trying hard to keep his voice down. "You won't even let me get a word in edge ways!"

"That's because I already know what you're going to say." He opened his mouth to protest but she carried on, wrapping the bindings round the medical kit and placing it safely inside her backpack.

"No I don't know if I am, and yes, it had occurred to me."

"But Ino, you're so young…we're so young."

"We?" she rounded on him suddenly, her hands balling into fists so her nails left little imprints on her palms.

"Who said anything about 'we'? This kid, if there is a kid and it's not simply a figment of your over active imagination, isn't necessarily yours."

Shikamaru's eyebrows shot up so fast they were in danger in flying off the top of his head. He felt like saying: 'when has there ever been anyone else' or 'prove it' but settled for, "And Kiba tells me I'm a bad liar."

She gave him a look half way between wanting to burst into tears and hitting him hard across the face, all she did though was sit back on her heels, fold her arms protectively in front of her body and face him down with steely determination. Shikamaru felt like he was about to be run down by an armoured tank.

"I'm not-" he began hesitating because he had the feeling anything he said was going to be taken the wrong way, because he could never get his words out right and she always seemed to grasp the wrong end of the stick, or jump to accusations, or become defensive, or shut him out no matter how desperately he tried to get closer. They'd tried once and it had been a disaster, and now they were still gaining ground from where they'd slipped over the last time. Everything seemed pockmarked with mistakes like sharp pieces of shrapnel.

"I'm not pointing fingers, or making accusations, I just want to know…" he looked over his shoulder checking to see whether or not they were really alone, "If there was…" He made a 'Hrum' noise in his throat.

"Would it be mine?"

She faltered for a moment, and for one of those rare seconds looked vulnerable, Shikamaru was grasped then by a sudden urge to kiss her, but then remembered their shouting match across the floor of the Ramen shop less than a month ago, stemmed the urge to lean forwards and brush their lips together.

"Probably…" she said with more conviction than she had meant to imply, she knew in her head that there wasn't actually anyone else but she didn't want to tell him that. In fact she never wanted to tell Shikamaru anything that might show him how desperately she was in love with him, because she was always afraid that in the back of her mind he was looking down on her. She was proud and independent but very easily hurt, like she always had been.

She waited for his next few words, thinking them likely to be: 'abortion' and, 'it's for the best' and 'you're too young', or even, 'I don't want it'. But instead he said, still pulling that same expression as if he didn't quite believe what he was saying but had decided to say it anyway.

"Then, I think we should get married."

First she was speechless, then she was stunned, and then she was angry.

Very angry.

"I don't want your pity!" her voice decibels below a shrill shriek of rage, "What makes you even think I would lower myself to being forced into a marriage when neither one of us…can…can…just because…because I got myself knocked up! I don't need you in order to have a kid!"

Shikamaru had placed both his arms over the top of his head the second her voice had threatened to split his skull open.

"I didn't say you needed me," he said with feigned calmness, very aware now that everyone had stopped what he or she were doing and had turned round to stare at them.

"I just thought it would be the right thing to do."

It was as if he'd pressed a magic button that had made her see red and kept his thumb pressed firmly on it, it was as if he had deliberately goaded her or was being nasty on purpose. He wasn't trying to woo her, he wasn't trying to tell her that he loved her; he was being exactly how she'd thought he would be if he'd ever found out. He was being analytical and deeply logical down to his marrowbone and it moved Ino into a trembling rage.

She stood up, hands quivering with anger as she brushed off the dirt from her knees.

"Don't you ever, Shikamaru Nara, ask me that again." She said in deathly hushed tones, her heart in her mouth, "I am never going to marry anybody whom I don't love and doesn't love me equally in return, and if I am pregnant I hope to god this baby doesn't know what a heartless pig their father is!"

Then she turned round and walked away.

"Well, you weren't exactly courteous were you?" Kiba told him more then asked with all his usual tact as they both stared up at the top of their tent ceiling, backs to the hard earth floor beneath them.

"What was I supposed to say?" his friend snapped back at him, his insides were writhing from both embarrassment and anger. It wasn't a rational anger either, 'How dare she refuse! How dare she!' a voice inside his mind kept repeating over and over again, whilst another little voice said 'Thank goodness she refused, you didn't to be married to her anyway did you?'

Did he? Did he want to be married to Ino? Was that very complicated and sometimes down right fanatical feeling he felt towards her love? And even if it was, love alone can't make a marriage work. She drove him crazy on a regular basis, and he was pretty sure she couldn't stand being around him, so was their relationship based on a purely physical attraction towards each other…when they were fifteen and on that mission together had that all been…?

He shook his head trying to dislodge pictures of dandelions, tall grass being blown in a warm gentle breeze under the sun and Ino smiling at him whilst he…

"I can't believe you just asked me 'What was I supposed to say', I'm supposed to be the dumb one in this relationship Maru, it makes me nervous when you ask me to perform a role reversal."

"I can't bloody well read her mind!" His angular eyed friend hissed back, banishing the thoughts to the back of his head and clapping one hand over his forehead.

"I offered her a completely rational decision, and it blew up in my face,

End-of-story. There's no pleasing her!"

"You didn't tell her you loved her." Kiba said simply, linking his fingers together and placing them behind his head with a leisurely yawn.

"She didn't want me to say that." Was Shikamaru's stubborn reply, "She was just look for an opportunity to blow up at me, because I got her pregnant."

"It takes two to tango." Kiba answered with an irritating about of conviction in his voice.

"Any excuse you two, and you were off like rabbits."

"You're such a liar!" Shikamaru responded with an incredulous laugh, "Don't sex it up in your head."

"Well perhaps that's a bit extreme," Kiba admitted, wiggling down low into his sleeping bag, "you don't have that much stamina."

Shikamaru considered hitting him, but it was too bothersome to reach over in the dark, cramp, confines of their tent and bob Kiba on the head.

"But if you'd proposed to me like that, I would have certainly said no."

Shikamaru propped himself up on his elbows in the dark, "You would consider saying 'Yes'? No, please don't answer that question, I fear the answers you might give me."

"And I am very fond of you." Kiba continued as if Shikamaru hadn't spoken at all, "But a marriage proposal has to come from the gut, you have to mean it and be willing to put yourself on the line and look a fool. You need to be romantic, you need to be passionate…you need to…need to sweep her off her feet and convince her you're madly and wildly in love with her and no other man will ever make her happy but you."

"Well, seeing as I'm none of those things." Shikamaru responded tartly, lying back down again, I guess I should give up right now and wave the white flag before one of us declares war. She might not even be pregnant Kiba."

His friend said nothing for a moment, and they lay listening to the sounds of the night outside, the noisy chirp of cicadas singing to each other under the moonlight, the drip of moisture from one leaf to another in the branches of the trees all about them. The low crackling of the fire and the gentle inhale and exhale of the huge dog outside their tent, a small pebble falling against the side of their tent and sliding down the canvas, and on a up turned log they could hear Lee humming to himself as he kept watch.

"You still love her, whether she's pregnant or not." Kiba said after a moments pause with stern finality. There was the leathery slide of another pebble falling against their canvas tent and sliding quickly to the forest floor.

"I don't even know what love is." Shikamaru countered petulantly, "Least of all when it comes to her, I-OUCH!" A much larger pebble this time came sailing at the canvas wall, colliding this time with Shikamaru's head, it ricocheted off the base of his crown and went skidding away into the darkness.

"WHO THE BLAZES IS THROWING STONES AT MY HEAD?!" he yelled, massaging his skull and leaning forwards to yank down the zipper to the front of the tent. Then they heard somebody chuckle, then it all made sense.

"Kiba, get out the tent and go to the toilet."

"But I already went…"

"Don't argue with me, just GO!"

Kiba made an upset whine and crawled out the front flap before Shikamaru could kick him out, he went nosily, grumbling, waving at Lee and asking him not to look whilst he did his business. Lee turned about; hands over his eyes and a hand came round the base of the tent flap.

A hand that was not Lee's, not Neji's, not Ino's, not Hinata's or Kiba's. A tanned hand, and then a blond head, and then shoulders and the rest of Naruto's body.

"Took you long enough." Shikamaru told Naruto acidly, massaging the bump on the top of his head.

"How long were you waiting for?"

"A few hours." Naruto said breathily, his wide expressive mouth drawn into a long grin.

"I wasn't going to try anything with Neji on watch."

"Good call," Shikamaru said nodding, "where's Sasuke?"

"Close by, watching too. He'll give a whistle if something out of the ordinary happens."

"Like that you mean?" Shikamaru gestured to the bandage on Naruto's upper arm, his face dark and concerned.

"Yeah," Naruto replied warningly, "like that. I've come to talk to you about that actually…" but he was hushed as Shikamaru put a hand over his mouth and shook his head suddenly.

The tent shivered and Kiba came through the entrance flap grumbling, he wrinkled his nose at Shikamaru and gave Naruto a savage grin pulling him quickly into a bear like hug.

"Took you long enough," he said gruffly, "this one here's" he jerked his head in the direction of Shikamaru, "gone mad. He proposed to Ino this evening."

"Get out!" was Naruto's shocked but very much impressed response, "I didn't think he had the balls to do it."

"Oh it was only because he got her pregnant!"

Naruto's mouth opened and shut for a moment, before he turned round, blue cornflower eyes wide and said almost in awe:

"Your mother is going to kill you Shikamaru when she finds out."

"Can we leave my mother out of this please? In fact can we leave that entire general area alone? Or did you just come here for a general chit-chat?"

Naruto grinned again, "I did come here for a chit-chat actually, but not of the nice kind. I need to tell you guys something…"

Kiba leaned forwards and Shikamaru frowned as Naruto's voice lowered to a hoarse whisper as he began to retell what had happened to him, half way through he pulled the bandage off his arm to show Shikamaru the strange shape of the wound. Naruto's fast immune system had reduced it to nothing more than an oddly shaped scar, but the fact that you could see any damage at all spooked Shikamaru somewhat. A wound in a normal person in a more vital spot would probably kill them within an hour, and they didn't even know what liquid the thing was pumping in.

"So," Kiba said thoughtfully after Naruto had stopped his hand gestures, "we have to make sure we aren't attacked by small pygmies?"

"There not pygmies, Kiba." Shikamaru said slowly grinding them out between his back teeth.

"Okay, so they're small and deadly."

"What else did Sasuke tell you Naruto?"

Naruto swallowed here, looking uncertain, his gaze flickering a moment to where his hands were resting on his knees.

"He told me he saw them when he was with Orochimaru, and that there are probably a lot more, scattered about the place. He told me they're probably colonising somewhere, you know, like a nest? And that we have to find the nest and destroy it, but the longer we leave it, the bigger it's going to get. Those things are breeding, they're increasing by the minute, if they go to full out war on Konoha they'll win by sheer force of numbers. Likelihood is most have already begun to migrate down that way anyway, in which case they'll be leaving the nest opened and exposed for us too…"

"Wait," Shikamaru raised a hand, fingers to his temple concentrating whilst Kiba just looked lost.

"You're saying these things are like an ant colony?"

"Pretty much, or at least that's what Sasuke implied."

"Did he imply where they came from?" Shikamaru questioned sharply, he was looking at Naruto's arm again, and his dark brown eyes were grave.

"Not as such…well, it sounded like it was something Orochimaru was experimenting on…" Naruto said slowly, nibbling at his lower lip.

"He said that?"

"It was implied."

"Then he's lying to you."

Naruto's face became cold suddenly and he sat back on his heels, "I think I'd know if he was lying to me, Maru."

Kiba shifted uncomfortably, he didn't want an argument to break out between the two of them, but he thought it was probably more than likely, so he busied himself with not making eye contact with anyone and clearing his throat as inconspicuously as possible.

"You do realise," Shikamaru said after a moment's pause, "that that Jutsu you're using is probably somewhat impairing your judgement."

"W-what, uh, how?" Naruto asked cornflower blue eyes wide with a slight undertone of serious panic, almost as if he'd had suspected something himself.

"What Jutsu?" Kiba questioned coming up from his long inspection of the sleeping bags.

"The forbidden one I taught him to use," Shikamaru said lightly as if he was regretting speaking at all from horrified look on Naruto's face.

"It's a binding Jutsu, it's suppose to be used on enemies if you have to drag a captive back to base and can't do it any other way. But they banned it soon after it was discovered."

"Why?"

"When you bind chakra with someone, it tends to more than just keep them within a physical distance of you. They banned it, because of a number of occasions it proved to have side effects that weren't exactly desirable when two nations are war."

"Such as?"

Shikamaru hesitated before he continued, his eyes level with Naruto's and not daring to look away.

"Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? Sometimes there were cases of captors and captive becoming…emotionally attached to each other. It impaired judgement, increased the amount of endorphins sent to the brain simulating-"

"Well I guess," Naruto said with a finality that broke through the awkward air between them, "that the sooner I can break that Jutsu the better. But don't imply that my judgements impaired Shikamaru. My judgement has never been clearer."

No one said anything for a while, the sounds of Lee wandering around the campfire humming to himself became prominent once again, the wet scuffle of leaves underfoot and the scrunch of rocks against the earth.

"Look I didn't mean to imply-" Shikamaru burst out wondering how many more people he was going to offend before the night was out, but Naruto cut him off with a shrug of his shoulders and that easy carefree grin.

"I'll worry about myself and Sasuke alright? You just worry about everything else and what I'm going to do tomorrow."

Kiba and Shikamaru sent each other looks at this.

They both said in unison, "What are you doing tomorrow, Naruto?"

The Kitsune gave them a fox like grin, withdrawing the curled pages of a map from the insides of his jacket and laying it out on the tent floor.

"When we stopped at the village, I convinced the elder to give me these maps you see. What you don't know is that they used to mine diamonds up here, but then they had to stop because there was a war and the enemy infiltrated the mines and blew most of them up. But there is one tunnel, which according to my sources (Kiba made a low impressed whistle here) still remains intact. But best of all it leads right to the other side of the mountain. I mean that's cutting days, a week even off this journey."

"And you're seriously thinking about going through? Naruto that's suicide! You don't know what the hell is down there! You could get lost, or you could die! You could be ambushed! The whole tunnel could collapse down on you and you'd be trapped!"

"Or I could get through and manage to save Sakura before these things kill her, and the rest of them. There are people on the other side; we don't know how much time we have. But I'm going to give you the location to the tunnel mouth so you can see it, or, if you want to, go after us."

"Oh, goodie." Was Shikamaru's reflexive response, dripping with such sarcasm his tongue almost drowned in it.

He spent another half an hour arguing with Naruto but the Kitsune remained stubborn and unmoved, and eventually, with an almighty shrug of his shoulders and a shake of his head he said, "Fine, but if you're in trouble when you come back up to the surface again, send two red flares. There are some in the bag behind the tent; you can pick them up on your way out. And Naruto, don't do anything heroic."

"Me?" the blond said with an almost vulpine grin, "When have I ever been heroic?"

Kiba pressed his forefingers over his closed eyelids and sighed, "It gives me the heebie-jeebies when he says that because you always know he's about to go off and try to save the world."

"Kiba," Shikamaru said sternly, "you need to go to the toilet again."

"Don't tell me what to do with my bladder!" Kiba snapped at him, "Lee's going to think I have Diarrhoea at this rate. Why don't you go to the toilet?"

But Shikamaru fixed him with such a look that with a grumble and a sigh he climbed out his sleeping bag once more, gave Naruto another bear like hug, ruffled the top of his blond hair, and then crawled out the front flap of the tent again.

"You better go."

"Yeah, I should."

There was an awkward pause and then they both leant forwards into a clumsy embrace and then broke apart again.

When Kiba came back in again, complaining about the lack of loo roll and leaves being unsuitable he asked Shikamaru what the matter was.

Shikamaru replied that there was something in his eye and that he was tired.

Kiba thought he knew otherwise.

"I'm almost surprised to see you back again." Sasuke said softly, Naruto was looking up into the branches of a tree; hand on hips, the moonlight cascading gently across his hair and face.

"Almost?" he said with a small smile, the shadows seemed to stipple and waver for a moment, pricks of starlight falling through the forest canopy.

Sasuke swung his legs; he had that knowing smirk of a smile on his face, like he thought Naruto couldn't resist coming back to him, and that he always would come back to him no matter what.

"Shikamaru thinks your lying you know."

"I'm sure he does."

"Are you lying?"

"I've told you everything you need to know."

He'd avoided the question, Naruto thought, and it was impossible to tell anything from Sasuke's expression, eyes like silver mirrors and his mouth half a wry smile as if Naruto had said something that was vaguely amusing.

"Sasuke," Naruto began again, a little more urgent this time, "if this is a wild goose chase I will never forgi-"

But as he struggled to finish his words Sasuke descended gracefully from the boughs of the tree and pulling Naruto forwards swallowed the rest of his words as he covered Naruto's lips with his own. Nobody talked for a while after that, Naruto protesting at first but opening his mouth to left Sasuke's tongue slide inside and winding his fingers through Sasuke's thick dark hair, and Sasuke pressing Naruto too him as if he was something precious to keep hold of forever and ever.

As they broke apart, Naruto breathless, his eyes fluttering half closed and wondering if he was mad, if he was insane, if he was chasing his tail round and round in a circle. He tilted his head up to look at Sasuke, his cheeks flushed with a tinge of desire and confusion, his fingers on Sasuke's shoulders firm and reassuring.

"But you haven't told me everything…have you Sasuke?"

Sasuke's fingers scraped the tousles of blond hair away from Naruto's forehead, his right forefinger skidding across Naruto's cheekbone and then tracing the horizontal lines with the tip of his finger.

"There's nothing else you need to know, I promise."

"But Sasuke…" Naruto began, his body tensing as he tried to push away, "that's not the same thing as knowing everything. Knowing how all of this came about, and knowing what you're doing here in the middle of everything, here, with me! I have a right to know."

"I promise you," Sasuke's grip as unyielding on Naruto as his voice, it didn't succumb to emotion but more to firmness and finality. Something Naruto thought he could trust, or was that a misconception? Is that what Shikamaru had meant? Was his judgment being impaired because he was…Naruto shook his head and tried to listen to Sasuke, he trusted Sasuke didn't he? Didn't he? They'd got this far hadn't they? He wasn't about to let it all fall apart now…

"I've told you everything that's going to help you rescue Sakura, you don't need to know about me because that's not important. And if the time comes when I have to deal with what I've done, then that's exactly what I'll do. But you asking you to trust me Naruto, can you do that?"

The blond let out a low chuckle, he said bluntly, "It's like walking into a lions den with blindfold on. But I'll do it, because I don't have another option."

They stood there for a moment, eyes closed breathing in, and out, like there was nothing more important in the world for them to do at that point. When Sasuke pulled away Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled something out looping it around a string before throwing it at Sasuke who caught it deftly, looking puzzled.

"It's a promise," Naruto said stubbornly, hands in pockets, his mouth upturned, mulish and apprehensive at the same.

"It's a promise, that after all of this is said and done, we're going to be alive at the end of this."

Sasuke opened his hand and saw simple gold band and the blood stone gem twinkling up at him in the dim light, he held it by it's string and let it fall. Judging the weight and the swing of it, they both watched it sway back and forth and back again.

"Naruto," he didn't question why he'd given it to him, or what he was supposed to do with it apart from wearing it around his neck, but it seemed important to say it.

"Naruto, at the end of this, I promise I'll come back to you."

A/N: I have to admit when I write Lee I think of Hugh Laurie in Blackadder…

If you liked it, review.

Also, Erica sent me some glorious fanart, which you can find here i19(dot)photobucket(dot)com/albums/b159/EternityDreams/fishbirdsketches(dot)jpg

She's such an amazing artist!

Happy Birthday Fish Bird, you're nearly to the end of part one :'D!

Oh and as a last note, I keep getting people asking 'dude what's up with Sasuke's no chakra thing?' Guys, it's part of the plot, at some point I am obviously going to explain it along with a lot of other stuff, but right now, you're as in the dark as Naruto.