[Previously]

"Training starts now. We have to leave very soon. I'll explain on the way out, but it's imperative that you listen to everything I say from this moment on. No zoning out, alright?"

"Uh... alright, Pervy Sage. Whatever you say."

Chapter Twenty Five

Naruto and Jiraiya began getting together the few belongings that Naruto actually had to his name. It went without saying that he wanted to toss away his Noboru identity and try to begin life as Uzumaki Naruto again. So all of 'Noboru's' clothes were discarded with, tossed in the garbage in the room's bathroom. Naruto was only dressed in a shirt that Jiraiya had given him that was much too big for his still scrawny body and a pair of shorts. Eventually, he would buy new clothes to replace the ones he'd tossed away. These were only for his escape from the hospital.

"Is this all you want, Naruto? Nothing else?" Jiraiya asked, holding up single green pack. It was the same one that Naruto took with him on the recent mission to rescue Sasuke. It looked a little worse for wear with holes in some places and burned scars in the tough fabric. But it was still functionable. Inside the bag was just a single framed photo of team seven that he'd swiped from his old apartment when he'd first arrived (apparently, no one wanted to live in an apartment that once housed the Nine tails jinchuuriki), an extra pair of shoes, his favorite hat, a few weapons, and the summoning scroll that Jiraiya first allowed him to use. His belongings were scarce, but he figured he had what he needed. Growing up with the past that he had, he was used to it.

"Yeah, that's it," he confirmed, walking over and grabbing the pack from the ero-sennin. "What now, oh wise one?"

knock knock

Both head snapped towards the door. Since they were both working on breaking him out, they had every right to be nervous. As was noted, Tsunade would murder them both if she found out about this. Especially Jiraiya, since he was blatantly going against her wishes. Jiraiya looked back to Naruto, thinking quick on his feet, and gestured for him to quickly climb back in bed. Naruto obeyed, laying down and pulling the blankets up to his neck to cover the change of clothes he wore. Jiraiya sat down quickly in the chair beside the back, sliding the dingy bag under the bed as Naruto called out, "Come in!"

The door opened slightly and Shikamaru appeared in the doorway. He looked slightly suspicious but everyone in the room, including him, knew that he was much too lazy to even think about investigating what the blonde and sannin were doing in there. It would be, in his words, "troublesome".

"Shikamaru!" Naruto called. He would have sat up if he hadn't remembered at the last second that the blankets were the only thing covering his escape clothes. So he continued laying down and simply graced the Nara with a wide, toothy grin.

Shikamaru gave a small smiled back at him, closing the door behind him with his foot. He slid his hands into the pockets of his pants as he came to stand at the side of Naruto's bed. He acknowledged the Sannin with a slight bow of the head, then turned to his former comrade. "Ha-ha, well what do you know," he began, chuckling. "I didn't think it could be true, but there you are... alive. After three whole years. Damn, Konoha's most unpredictable ninja strikes again."

Naruto chuckled as a blush of embarrassment flushed across his cheeks. "Yeah, well, about that... It wasn't like it was a prank this time."

"Yeah, yeah." Shika waved him off. "Dammit, I have no idea what to say to you. It doesn't even seem real, to be honest."

"Did... Sakura-chan send you?"

"Yeah... She snatched me away from a game of Shogi to tell me some sort of 'Top Secret Information'. Apparently, I'm the first one she thought of as to who would take the news most logically and not freak out. Go figure." He smirked. "I'm also in charge of gentle ways of breaking the news to everyone else. It'll be troublesome, but worth it, I guess."

Jiraiya stood up slowly and stretched his arms out away from his body. "I'll wait for you two to finish outside. I actually have some work I need to complete. Call me when you're finished, Naruto." He gave a casual wave and turned, walking out the door and into the hallway. Again, the door was closed behind him.

When Jiraiya left, Shikamaru took the seat that he'd occupied. "So, what's being dead like?" he asked, reclining.

Naruto stared at him curiously. "What?"

Shika sighed. "An ice breaker. But I've never really been good at those. So let's cut to the point. I want to talk to you."

Naruto mentally groaned. Of course, he should have known. These conversations were always the same. They came in and everone was excited, and then they only wanted to talk about tough issues. They never seemed to get that he just didn't want to talk about it.

"What about?" he asked, not able to keep the frustration from his voice.

Shikamaru didn't bother seeming insulted by the sudden change in tone. He never even acknowledged it. He leaned forward in his seat, looking Naruto in his eyes. "I want to talk to you about how you must be feeling. The failure and all. I never got to talk to you the first time, you being dead and all."

"Shikamaru..." Naruto groaned.

He held out his hands in a sign of not meaning any harm. "No, hear me out. I know how you must feel. After that last mission... I felt like crap. Literal crap, like feces. Every member of the team sent after Sasuke was critically injured, and you died. And you know what? I was the leader. It was my job to protect you guys and I completely failed in every way possible. I felt like everything was all my fault. I went over every decision in my head, trying to figure out how it could have gone differently, but I always ended up just digging myself deeper into a pity hole."

"Shikamaru..."

"But eventually, someone had to slap some sense into me. There was nothing I could do differently, because the past was the past. I couldn't bring you back or try again to make sure no one got hurt. But I could learn from it. I could become a better leader and learn from whatever mistakes I made. I'd make sure nothing like that ever happened to anyone on my squad again. And you know what? I think I'm doing good so far." He sat up in his chair, his black eyes never leaving Naruto's. "I guess what I'm trying to say here is... Don't let the past rule you. It's the past for a reason. It's one of the few things we can't change in this world. But we can learn from it, and use the knowledge to change our futures. I mean, we've all got a big responsibility on our hands. We're Konoha shinobi. We're entrusted by our senseis, our hokage, and all the citizens who live here with the task of keeping our village safe. And one day, we'll have to entrust the next generation to do the same. And we can't do that if we set a bad example for them and live in the past without learning anything. Get it?"

Naruto stared at him for a moment, mulling over his words in his head. He felt about two inches tall, Shika's words clashing against his mind and shouting at him that he was doing exactly what he was telling him not to do. He was living in the past. He was wallowing in self pity. And even though he wasn't dwelling over his own mistakes (Though there were plenty of them), he was dwelling on others'.

He felt like such an asshole. As if Sakura knew when she made him make that promise to her that he was in love with her and she was breaking his heart, or that she knew he was going to die that day. She had only been thirteen! She was just a kid, like all of them had been. She hadn't known anything. She wasn't at fault for anything. And yet, right then, she was probably out somewhere blaming herself as if she'd killed him herself.

Dammit.

[A few hours later]

Naruto stood in the midnight air, grateful to be out of the hospital and able to just be free. He could go to Ichiraku Ramen if he really truly wanted to. He had the ability to. But he knew that Ero-Sennin would bash his head in if he risked stopping and getting caught and being sent back to the hospital. They probably wouldn't have the chance to leave the hospital again if he was sent back. Tsunade would keep him under tight surveillance until he was fully healed. And Pervy Sage probably wouldn't be able to come to see him again.

But he did plan to make one stop before he left. Jiraiya went off ahead to make sure everything was clear for their departure and the guards at the gate wouldn't give them too much trouble for leaving. He was supposed to send a toad to him when the coast was clear. So he was free to wander discreetly around Konoha until then.

He jumped up on a low hanging branch of a cherry blossom tree just outside of a window of a small apartment building. He knew very little about the particular building, but knew a lot about one of the apartments it held. And he knew even more about the tenant that stayed there. Standing on the branch and trying to keep his balance, he leaned forward and knocked lightly on the glass of the window. There was a shuffle inside, and then a pink haired figure appeared behind the glass.

"Naruto?" she asked, sounding a mix between timid and shocked. "What are you doing here? What are you doing out of the hospital?"

He ran his tongue over dry lips. He was sudeenly filled with a sense of tension. "I um... I'll explain in a second. Can I come in?"

A/N Woooooooo! Quick update! And a Cliffy! I love it :D

Thanks for all the reviews, my lovely readers. Oh, and quickly, what are your opinions of the sequel? Cause I may not have to write one and I could just continue the story here. There are just some ends I would tie up in the sequel and I could do that on this story. It all depends on whether or not you all want a reeeeeally long story. I dunno, I write for you guys. So whatever you want, I'm your slave :3

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