'Normal thought…'
"Kyuubi/ Bijuu speech…"
'Kyuubi communicating with Naruko inside her head…'
"Normal speech…"
Jutsu name…
Chapter 53- Hidden Motive and the guy with Zero Motivation!
Naruko waived cheerily at the crowd while running around.
Genma smiled at that in fondness. 'She still has the energy to run around, huh? Jeez, that's a lot of stamina she got there.'
'Naruko is getting stronger and stronger…' Sakura thought in surprise.
"That Naruko is pretty strong." A civilian boy, who sat behind Sakura said in amusement.
"Yes. And she's kind of cute, don't you think? Especially those fox ears she got in the fight." His companion raved about Naruko.
"Well, that's definitely true. Do you think she would go on a date with me?" The civilian asked with a blush on his face.
Sakura sighed at that and looked back to the arena, where Naruko was now smiling brightly at the crowd and winking at them. 'I'm a little envious of you. When I see you fight, it makes me think that I should try my best, too. That's an amazing thing.' She sighed a bit depressed.
Shikamaru shook his head in fondness as he looked at the girl he saw as a sister. "Great, now Naru's getting all those cheers. And I had hoped she would stay in the 'not-so-cool' group with me…Troublesome."
"Not-so-cool group?" Shino asked him in confusion.
"Because she's getting all those cheers now, she's a member of the cool-group And to add onto that, I definitely can't beat her… Now, I wonder if I even should try to fight in these matches anymore…" Shikamaru sighed.
"She could extract the chakra of the Kyuubi without losing herself." Kurenai said surprised to Asuma, who sat next to her.
"Yeah…" Asuma said and shook his head. "Everyone from Konoha is surprised. Especially those who fought the Kyuubi 13 years ago…" He smiled. "But maybe this will help the little kitsune to finally be tolerated by the villagers."
Naruko stopped running and giggled amused. "Ah, I won… This was fun."
'Yeah, if you mean almost losing the fight without my help, listening to boring monologues and beating someone up is fun… You should really learn how to define the word 'fun'.' Kyuubi snorted inside her head.
'Well, really? It's definitely better than your definition of fun… I mean eating people and destroying villages doesn't seem very funny to me, big bad Kyuu.' Naruko deadpanned at him.
Kyuubi just sighed at that and wisely kept his mouth shut.
Naruko turned her head and looked at Neji, who was being transported away by medics. 'I really hope he's ready to change himself… It would be a pity if he wouldn't…' She smiled softly. 'But I have the feeling he somewhat let go of his hatred.' Naruko stretched herself and then began to walk up to the waiting room. "Let's go annoy Shika~" She giggled amused as she could hear Kyuubi sigh in her head.
In the waiting room…
Shikamaru sighed and mumbled troublesome. 'Why do I have the feeling that Naru is scheming something again…?'
"Shika~" Just then, Naruko stormed into the room while shouting for him.
Shikamaru sighed again. 'Speaking of the devil…' "Good fight, Naru."
Naruko giggled as she now stood next to him. "Yeah, it really was a good fight, wasn't it? Do you have seen how I beat Neji's ass and changed him for the better?"
Shikamaru sweat dropped at that. "Yes… I have seen how you used your Talk no Jutsu…"
Naruko smiled brightly. "It was good, wasn't it? I get better at it every time I use it." She looked down at the empty arena and smiled softly.
Shikamaru began to sweat. '…That is definitely not a good thing… She's already dangerous with her puppy dog-eyes no Jutsu alone… Now, you can add a more improved Talk no Jutsu onto that, and the world is going to lay at her feet…'
Naruko looked with a thoughtful expression at the noisy crowd, who was slowly getting upset because the next match wasn't' starting.
"What happened? Is Sasuke-kun here for the next match or not?" Ino asked in concern.
"Sakura bit on her lip in worry. 'Sasuke-kun…'
"What is this guy doing?" Shikamaru asked Naruko lazily as the crowd slowly was getting more and more upset. "Is he planning not to come?"
Naruko just leaned over the railing, deep in thoughts.
"A wise man keeps away from danger." Shino said sternly. "He made a good decision."
"What are you two talking about?" Naruko narrowed her eyes seriously. "Sasuke-teme will definitely come… He'll just be late because of a lazy pervert, who can never be by an event on time! And who will probably be so late that Sasuke-teme is going to be disqualified!" She shouted furiously and then sighed, not wanting to talk about a certain someone, whose face is covered by a mask.
Shikamaru gulped at that and took a step away from her. 'Yep, she's definitely angry at Kakashi…'
Naruko puffed her cheeks out, sulkily. Just then, she could feel someone's eyes on her. She turned her head, just to look at Gaara's tale green eyes. Naruko narrowed her eyes and glared at him. 'Kyuu, this tanuki guy is so weird.' She said to him as she noticed how he looked away from her.
'Well, he is the jinchuuriki of Shukaku, so he has to be at least a bit weird and crazy like him.' Kyuubi shrugged.
'Wow, you speak well of your brother.' Naruko said sarcastically.
'We're NOT brothers! I think I already told you that, ungrateful puny human!' Kyuubi huffed angrily.
'Yes, sorry, sorry.' Naruko sighed and looked back at the empty arena. 'But still, something seems off about tanuki guy… It's just a weird feeling, but it concerns me.'
Kyuubi sighed. 'I guess. But it's something else that worries me. If I could sense this crazy bastard inside his jinchuuriki, he probably can sense me in you too. That means he could already have schemed something unbelievable crazy… And you're in the middle of that.'
Naruko shrugged. 'Well, whatever it is, I'm prepared.'
'Just be careful brat. I don't know if I can quite help you with whatever he intends to do.' Kyuubi told her seriously.
'Awww… Are you worried about me, Kyuu?~' She giggled in amusement.
'S-SHUT UP! I'M NOT WORRIED ABOUT YOU! …It's just that I don't want my Jinchuuriki to lose to that pathetic Shukaku vessel! That would hurt my pride as the strongest Bijuu ever to exist!' He shouted at her.
'Jeez… Okay, I get it.' Naruko thought with a sigh and turned back to the outside world.
Shikamaru looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face. "Naru…?"
"Huh?" Naruko looked confused at his expression. "What's wrong Shika?"
"I have called you for two minutes, but you didn't answer. Are you sure you're okay?" He looked at her in confusion and a bit of concern.
"Y-Yes, sorry. I was a bit distracted by my thoughts…" She rubbed the back of her head nervously.
"…Okay." Shikamaru shrugged and looked back at the empty arena. 'I will ask her about that later…'
Naruko sighed in relief, not wanting to be a new puzzle for a Nara, who would want to solve it no matter what. And hell, she knew how it was to have a Nara following you around and trying to figure you out. 'No thank you Shika, I don't want to go through that again.'
"What are we going to do?" Kankuro whispered to his siblings. "If he doesn't come, our plan is going to…"
"Is it this bad…?" Temari asked him silently.
Naruko narrowed her eyes as she could hear that because of her sensitive hearing. 'What plan?! And why does it include Sasuke?!' She shook her head in confusion. 'Here is definitely going something on… Thank kami for my good hearing.'
Baki looked from the grand stand at Gaara in shock. "Back then did he…"
Naruko looked back to the arena as she saw how a jounin appeared next to Genma and told him something. 'Is Sasuke going to be disqualified?!'
"Ladies and gentlemen…" Genma spoke up to the enraged crowd. "An examinee for the next match has not arrived just yet. Therefore, this match will be delayed, and we will begin the next match first."
"What is Sasuke doing?" Asuma shook his head. "If he doesn't show up soon, he's definitely going to be disqualified."
"I'm so glad Sasuke-kun wasn't disqualified~" Ino said happily. Sakura just chewed on her lip in concern.
Naruko sighed in relief. "Looks like you're lucky, Sasuke-teme…"
"OI, oi, does that mean my match is coming up faster?" Shikamaru said in shock.
"Looks like it Shika~" Naruko smiled at him cheerily. "You should be happy because you don't have to wait such a long time."
Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome…"
"Next match up…" Genma said casually. "Kankuro and Aburame Shino. Come down."
Kankuro gritted his teeth and began to sweat. 'My match isn't important!'
Shino laid a hand on the railing.
Baki tsked. "Damn it!"
'Besides…' Kankuro thought seriously. 'I don't want to show Karasu's hidden weapons before the plan.' He looked at Temari who nodded in agreement. "Examiner! I'm giving up!"
Shikamaru's and Naruko's eyes widened at, but for different reasons.
'What?' Genma narrowed his eyes, seriously.
Shino glared at him through his sunglasses.
"I'm giving up!" Kankuro repeated. "Go to the next match."
The crowd began to shout at that angrily.
Naruko looked at the three Suna nin suspiciously. 'They're all planning something… That's why Suna's jinchuuriki is here!' She bit on her lip in thought. 'But what are they planning?!'
'It's possible that it's something big...' Kyuubi said to her thoughtfully. 'And how you already concluded, bringing a jinchuuriki in a foreign country, even when they're allied, is not something that is allowed. I don't know why I didn't see that earlier but with Shukaku's jinchuuriki being here, Suna broke the peace alliance. That means they could only want one thing…'
Naruko's eyes widened utterly shocked. 'Kyuu, you don't mean…?! They want war?!'
'Either that or they want to overthrow Konohagakure no Sato with a sneak attack.' He told her seriously. 'Better watch out, brat.'
'But…. That…' Naruko shook her head to dispel her shock. 'I have to tell Jiji, but how?! I can't just walk up there and there's no way I can speak with Jiji in peace when the Kazekage is sitting right next to him! What am I going to do?!' She slowly began to panic. 'I can think of no way how I could inform Jiji… Maybe I should somehow inform the examiner… But how…' She whined.
'Stop whining, brat! It's already too late to do anything. We just have to wait and be prepared for whatever will happen.' Kyuubi shouted at her, annoyed from her whining.
Naruko sighed. 'Looks like I have no other choice…I just hope Jiji notices that something is wrong!' She thought in worry.
'Stop worrying! He's the Hokage of your pathetic village after all. So, I guess he's the strongest of you and if you, the pathetic excuse for a jinchuuriki can feel that something is wrong, he should have noticed it a long time ago.' He said to her nonchalant.
'Yeah, I guess you're right…' Naruko took a deep breath and concentrated back on the matches for now but being ready for a sneak attack that could come every time.
Genma sighed. "Kankuro has given up, therefore Aburame Shino wins by default."
Temari tsked at the angry shouts from the crowd. She took out her fan and with a fluent movement, she made a strong wind and flewon her fan down into the arena. The crowd fell silent at that.
"You are?" Genma asked her lazily.
"It's my turn, right?" Temari said cheekily.
"Looks like you want to do this." Genma nodded. "Yosh, we're going to start the next match. Oi! The other one! Get down here."
"Oi, oi, why are you guys getting excited…" Shikamaru said as he bent over the railing and looked down to the arena. "Actually, why do I have to be the one who gets his match-ups changed so frequently." He complained.
"Nara Shikamaru, it's you." Genma said towards him.
'I should just copy the other guy and give up-' Shikamaru thought lazily but then, his thoughts were interrupted by Naruko.
"Yosh, go Shika! Good luck!" And with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, she pushed him over the railing. She giggled as she saw how he landed back-first on the ground of the arena. Shikamaru just laid there, being too lazy to stand up or even move.
'I knew you wanted to give up, Shika. You Nara's are just too damn lazy.' Naruko thought in fondness.
'Damn you Naru…' Shikamaru thought as he looked up at the cloudy sky.
The crowd began to shout angrily and threw trash at him.
'It looks like they were looking forward to Sasuke's match and now they have to watch some no-name's match… So, now they're like: "What the hell! Get out of here!" There's no point in fighting in this match when no one expects anything from it…' Shikamaru thought lazily.
"What's this? You want to give up as well?" Temari taunted him.
Shikamaru looked at her and sighed. 'Another woman?'
Naruko's eyebrow began to twitch in annoyance. 'Shika, you lazy bastard…' She got even more annoyed as she heard Kyuubi's loud laughter inside her head.
'He had no interest in doing anything from the moment I met him…' Asuma thought as sweat ran down his face.
A tick mark appeared on Naruko's head as she saw that he still didn't move. "Shika! What are you doing?! If you don't fight in this match I'm going to kick your butt to the Nara compound!" She snapped at him angrily.
Shikamaru gulped at that and sweat ran down his face. 'This is troublesome… But if I don't fight, Naru is going to be angry…' He remembered the time, Naru was at the Nara compound and his father said something that angered Naruko. He had never seen his father this terrified, even his mother couldn't terrify her husband to such an intent. Shikamaru sighed. 'Looks like I have to fight…Maa, that's so troublesome…'
Temari narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "If you're not going to attack, I will!" And with that, she took her fan and stormed towards him.
"Oi, we haven't begun the match, yet!" Genma tried to say, but Temari ignored him.
"Man, she seems very excited about this… Why is every woman so troublesome?" Shikamaru said lazily and took out some kunai.
Just then, Temari smashed her closed fan at the place, Shikamaru was. A huge dust cloud was whirled up.
Naruko smiled cheerily and leaned forward in interest. Shino looked down in surprise.
Temari's eyes widened as the dust cloud disappeared and she noticed that she just smashed the ground instead of Shikamaru. Her eyes widened in shock as she looked at Shikamaru, who had drilled his two kunai in the side wall of the arena and now stood on them and looked down at her.
"I don't care if I can't become a Chunin…" He said casually with his hands in his pockets. "But a man can't lose to a woman. I guess I will fight." 'And everything is better than angering Naru…'
Naruko's eye twitched and she clenched her fist angrily. "What did he say about men and women?!" Her eyebrow twitched dangerously. Kyuubi snorted at that in her head, not really helping to calm Naruko down. "He's going to get some beating and even Talk no Jutsu if he continues like that." Naruko said darkly as she cracked her knuckles. "I guess the first time didn't really work by him…"
Shino looked at her for a split moment as he noticed how his insects began to panic. He didn't know why but he felt better, as he backed away from her a little.
Temari narrowed her eyes angrily at that. She opened her fan and threw a wind attack at him. A dust cloud was whirled up. Temari's eyes widened as the dust cloud disappeared and Shikamaru was gone. She turned around and looked at the tree in the arena with a cheeky smirk on her face. 'This guy is quick at running away.'
Shikamaru looked at her from behind a tree. 'But then again, a man can't really hit a woman… I don't want to get hit, either.'
'This guy uses shadows as his weapons…' Temari thought as she remembered his fight in the preliminaries. She held her opened fan before her. 'He must be trying to lure me into the trees where there are a lot of shadows… But that won't happen!'
Shikamaru sighed. 'Why do I have to fight a woman again! Damn it.'
"Shikamaru! Beat her up with your 16-hit-combo!" Ino cheered him on loudly while kicking the air enthusiastically.
Choji opened his bag of chips as he just arrived next to Ino. "Can I sit next to you?" He began to munch on some chips.
"What? Your stomach is okay already?" Ino looked at him in surprise.
"Yeah." He sat down next to her and placed a big bag full of snacks on the ground. He looked at the fight in confusion. "Huh? Wasn't the next match Sasuke's?"
"EHH! Sshhh!" Ino tried to silence him before Sakura could hear it, but it was too late.
Depressed lines appeared over Sakura's head as she looked utterly depressed down at the fight.
Ino began to sweat nervously and turned around to her. "Everything's fine, right, Sakura? We're talking about Sasuke-kun here…" Her eyebrow twitched as she saw that Sakura didn't react to her. 'I-I guess I leave her alone for now…'
"Hmmmm…. Shikamaru being in the match tournament…" Choji said thoughtfully. "It seems awful out of place, doesn't it?"
"Don't say that." Ino scolded him. "It might be true that he doesn't have any strong moves… But Shikamaru is quite good at devising strategies. That's why I think we were able to last up to the preliminaries matches.
"Yeah, that's true." Choji said as he already finished the bag of chips, he just began to eat.
"I think he's full of passion this time, not like usual." Ino thought determined. "Go, Shikamaru!" She cheered him on again, while throwing a fist into the air enthusiastically.
Shikamaru stared up at the clouds. 'The clouds are sooo nice… They're so free…' He sighed lazily. 'Actually, I have no motivation to begin with… I only became a ninja because I thought I would live a fun life…'
Naruko slowly calmed down and then noticed that Shikamaru still didn't come out of his hiding place. She sweat dropped at that. 'Don't tell me…' She thought and then sighed. 'He's cloud watching, isn't he?!'
Kyuubi chuckled amused at that.'I like this guy, even if he's a bit lazy.'
'You're even more lazy than him, Kyuu! All you do is sleeping, every time I want to speak with you!' Naruko deadpanned at him.
'Shut it, brat. It's the only thing I can do while being inside a weak vessel like you. I don't want to watch you doing your daily life and training all day, you know. Besides, I feel creepy doing it too often…'
Naruko sweat dropped at that. 'Wow, furball, you don't mind eating humans and destroying city's but watching a girl go her daily life, is 'too creepy' for you?!'
'Shut it, you disgraceful excuse for a ninja!' Kyuubi roared at her angrily. 'Don't expect me to help you again, brat! I'm going back to sleep!' And with that, he cut off their connection.
Naruko sweat dropped at that again. 'Wow, now the great, dangerous Nine-Tailed Beast Kyuubi is sulking… Well, I guess that never happened before, so something good came out of this?' She shrugged at that nonchalant, knowing that the Kyuu was going to be back talking to her again after he took a veeery long nap. 'Yes, he's probably back talking to me after he cat napped for … 8 hours? Probably more…' She shook her head in fondness, knowing Kyuu couldn't hear her anymore or he would have probably killed her for thinking that. 'I guess even the strongest of the Bijuu's doesn't want to be lonely…' She smiled softly at that and looked back at Shikamaru's fight, hoping Shika would get a grip already and begin to fight decently.
Hey guys! So, that was Chapter 53. How did you like it? :) Looks like Kurama is sulking now XD. He really is a little Tsundere, huh? Oh, and looks like Naru now knows that something is going to happen at the Chunin Exam. I really thought about it for a while, if I should let her inform the Sandaime, but then as I was rewatching the episode from the anime and reading the manga, it felt to me like the Sandaime already knew that something was going to happen. I think he even knew that the Kazekage was acting weird. (If you know what I mean. ;) ) I guess he already saw coming what was going to happen and he even accepted that he could die in the progress. That's why I choose not to include her telling him this. Regardless, Shikamaru's and Temari's fight is going to be continued in the next chapter, so I hope you are excited!
Well, see you next chapter and have an awesome day! :3
Talk no Jutsu = Talk -some-sense-into-the-enemy-or-friend Technique
puppy dog-eyes no Jutsu = Cutest-puppy-dog-eyes Technique that can make everyone do what you want them to do for you
Review
'00-SilentObserver-13': Love the interaction between kurama and naruko and shikamaru and naruko. Poor shikamaru landed himself on the need to sort this guy out/revenge list underneath kakashi. Poor unfortunate shino being there at the wrong time. Ooooo I wonder what happened when naruko got very mad shikaku. Anyways keep up the good work.
Thank you~ :3 Yeah, poor Shika is in trouble because Naruko is angry at him XD. And Naru and Kurama are so cute together :3. Oh, and it's better if you don't get to know what happened when Naruko got very, veeerry angry at Shikaku. XXD That's one of the reasons Shikaku is never going to mess with Naruko again. XD ;)
