Chapter 8: Aftermath

All the citizens and ninjas of Konoha were safe inside the shelter of the cave. The wind picked up heavily, and the rain finally fell. It pounded the ground hard, washing away the blood and memories of the fight fought hours ago. Inside, Ino laid on her back, resting in the make shift Hospital. Her mind was reeling, thoughts of Chouji covered in blood just wouldn't leave her alone. Even if it wasn't his, it still sent waves of fear threw her body. The brutally of the fight between that rock-nin, Chouji and Naruto played with her consciousness. The scene of the man being ripped apart by the two boy's most fiercest attacks replayed over and over in her mind.

She continued to dabble in her thoughts. Especially the ones about the relationship between herself and her teammate. Just like that, they went from partners, too couples. Unfortunately fate was angry today and decided not to give them a bliss filled first date. Instead it turned into a fight for life and death, and luckily they came back all in one piece. Hopefully, after the rest of the storm passes and the village is back to some state of normality, Chouji will ask her on a formal date.

"Ino?"

The blond girl looked up to find her blond haired boyfriend, standing over her. He wore nothing but black pants. He chest glistened due the the light reflecting off of his muscular build.

"Chouji, why do you only have pants on?"

"Well, seeing that were boyfriend and girlfriend now, I was thinking we could . . ." Chouji stopped and looked at Ino's terrified expression. Not able to help himself, he busted out into fits of laughter. "Hahaha, oh my god, Ino you should have seen your face, you were so scared. Hahaha . . . I 'm joking . . . hahahahaha!! Did you really think I would ask something like that. Man your so gullible." Straighting up he looked over at the girl on the bed. "Anyway, I don't have anything else to wear right now. All of my other cloths are drenched in blood, and I didn't want to walk around like that. This was my only option, until I dig up some type of other clothing somewhere."

Ino's terrified expression quickly left, replaced by relief. "I wasn't scared." The girl lied.

"Okay Ino-chan. Whatever you say."

Ino couldn't stop herself from blushing when Chouji finally added chan to her name. It felt so right coming from the boy. "I see you added chan, I like it. Chouji . . . kun."

The boy lit up in a smile and walked over to where the girl laid. Bending down, he embraced her in a hug. Kissing her softly on the forehead, and went to go sit down in the chair next to her when he heard a ear-splitting scream.

"THERE HE IS!!!" A female voice screamed out with utter glee.

"Whose that Chouji-kun" Ino asked with a hint of anger and jealousy.

"Well . . . since I've been walking around without a shirt, I've kinda . . . gotten myself a fan club." The boy smile, hoping that Ino wouldn't destroy him. "Well, I didn't think they would find me here, but I was wrong. Gotta go." Chouji quickly kissed Ino again, this time on the cheek and hurried away before the one that finally spotted him called for reinforcements.


"I'm so glad your alright!" Temari squealed. She held onto Shikamaru tightly, wanting to never let him go. The girl was almost in tears, then suddenly her mood changed without warning. "You scared the crap out of me, coming in all battered up, seeing so much blood on your friends." She growled while slapping the lazy chunin hard in the shoulder. Shikamaru winced in pain, she just had to pick the one that he dislocated. Then the girl's fowl mood went straight back to cute and warm. "But I'm so glad you alright."

Shikamaru could only sigh, and embrace and comfort the female sand-nin. While holding onto her tightly, he spotted Naruto and Hinata together, holding hands and walking out of the make-shift hospital.

"Sorry, Temari, but I have to go and talk to Naruto privately . . . you know; mission stuff." Before the girl could respond, Shikamaru kissed her and the left the her completely confused.

Naruto looked up too see Shikamaru bearing down on him and Hinata. "Oi, Shikamaru, whats up."

"Hinata, I'm sorry, but I need to talk to Naruto . . . alone."

Hinata looked at Naruto, who even though looking confused, nodded for the young Hyuuga to leave. Reluctantly, she backed away and went to join a lonely looking Temari.

"So Shika, whats up?"

"Naruto, I need to talk to you about what happen in the caves."

"Oh." Naruto looked down at his feet with guilt.

"You know, withholding information from your teammates could lead to a failed mission . . . or even worse."

"I know."

"Well apparently you didn't. Now tell me, what deal did you make with him. And more importantly, why didn't you tell me." Shikamaru, was apparently pissed. But his voice betrayed his angry expression, it was still calm and in a bored tone.

"He . . . um . . . he just . . . knew something. Thats all."

"He knew something? That doesn't make sense. Naruto, I'm not stupid, you know that. Now tell me."

"Fine." Naruto looked into Shikamaru's eyes. The fear of revealing his secret made his hear beat, and pores sweat. He didn't want to do it. But he went and dug himself a hole, he couldn't lie. . . or could he. No, Shikamaru wasn't going to fall for something stupid. It was time to tell someone.

"Well." Shikamaru questioned, glaring at the blond in front of him, who was clearly deep in thought.

"I will tell you, but you can't tell anyone. Okay. And when i say anyone. I MEAN ANYONE." Naruto stressed "anyone" with a slight growl.

"I won't tell anyone, its too troublesome. Now just tell me."

"Okay, but not here."

Naruto grabbed onto Shikamaru's jacket and hauled him to an unoccupied hallway that lead outside. There he slowly removed his white shirt. His chunin jacket long gone because of the tremendous amount of blood stains.

"What are you doing?"

"Just watch." Naruto said, as he brought his hands up, and molded some chakra.

Slowly, a spiral with intricate markings surrounding it appeared on his belly. Shikamaru watched in fascination.

Naruto spoke with regret. "I have Kyuubi sealed inside me, and that rock-nin knew about it. I promised to spare his life if he didn't tell everyone. That was the deal."

"Kyuubi? . . . you mean the nin-tailed demon fox that attacked 12 years ago?" Shikamaru responded, clearly a sense of understanding and awe with his voice.

"Yeah, they lied to you, they said that the 4th killed it, but the demon was just too powerful. He had to seal it in a baby. As you can see, that baby was me. Your parents were forbidden to tell you, in hope of me having friends. That went well." Naruto said, laying layers of sarcasm in his words.

"I'm sorry Naruto. I . . . don't know what to say."

"You don't need to say anything. I understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore. But please don't tell anyone." Naruto's strong demeanor slowly broke, sadness now entering his voice.

"Huh. Why wouldn't I be your friend? Your so troublesome."

Naruto looked to brighten up slightly. "Really?"

"Yeah, of course, you may be loud and hyper. But your still cool . . . in your own way. Now lets go."

Naruto threw his shirt back on with pride. Happy that he had at least one person his age that knew about the demon inside. Together they walked back into the crowded cave.


Naruto sat with Hinata at his prized Raman bar. It had been a week since the storm passed and the villagers of Konoha came back down to start the repairs on their town. Naruto couldn't stand the banging of hammers, the sound of saws and the overall loudness of the people working to repair the massive damage that the storm dealt out. The village was torn apart, the damage far surpassing the damage that occurred due to the attack from the Sand and Sound so many months ago.

Unfortunately, the Raman bare wasn't actually open. The top of it was horribly ripped off, and a tree laid inside, apparently it was thrown inside, the large thick bark crushing the counter and went all the way out into the streets. There were only two stools that weren't completely destroyed.

"Wow, Hinata, theres so much damage."

She replied with a nod.

"You know, that old hag said that everything should be back to normal in about 3 weeks. I just hope they decide to fix the Raman bar. One week without their fantastic Raman was hell. Three weeks . . . I don't think I can take it." Naruto said with extreme sadness. Three days earlier when he first saw the destroyed Raman stand, he collapsed in the street crying. It was horrible.

In fact, Naruto's own apartment was completely destroyed, the top half ripped off by the extreme wind. But that didn't sadden the youth one bit. Maybe because the Hyuuga family decided to give their heir's boyfriend a place to stay until things were repaired. But the truth was that he hated it, the only thing that the storm destroyed were bad memories of lonely nights and a hungry stomach.

"Hey Naruto!!"

Naruto looked up to see Chouji and Ino walking towards them, holding handings.

"Sup Chouji."

"Nothing, just walking with Ino-chan here, surveying the damage. Man we really got messed up bad didn't we.

"Yeah you said it. Mother nature was really pissed."

"Heh, yeah it seems so."

"So . . ." Naruto words were cut off by a ear piercing scream.

"THE HE IS, AND HE HAS A GIRL!!! GET HIM!!!"

"Crap, Naruto could you take care of Ino while I lose them . . . "

"No problem. Good luck."

With that Chouji took off in a sprint, clearly running for his life. Seconds later, a crowd of Chouji craving, hormone filled fan girl's rushed past, each shooting a glare towards Ino before continuing their pursuit.

"So Ino, looks like you finally got the village's heart throb. Funny that it didn't turn out to be Sasuke bastard huh." Naruto teased

"Yeah, its ironic isn't it."

Together the three left the Raman bar, well whats left of it and headed to go help with some repairs. Naruto couldn't wait until things would get back to normal. Well, as normal as it could be considering all that has changed in the past week. Holding onto Hinata tightly, they made their way happily down the village's street just waiting for the next challenge Kami had to throw their way

The End


-Author's Notes-

Well there you go. My first Naruto fan fic is complete. I got a little uninterested in it at the end, and rushed it. Thats never a good thing, If I'm not interested in it, then the readers will definitely not be. It originally started out to focus mainly on Chouji and Ino, then somehow it change to focus on Chouji, Ino, Shikamaru and Naruto. Sorry for not putting the Sasuke and Sakura pairing in it, but they really weren't needed and din't fit in with the story. Considering Sasuke is locked up and Sakura is a worthless who just cries like a baby next to Sasuke. Oh well, Anyway, please R&R. Just to let you know, I'm in the works with a fic that I am very interested in. Its a NaruHina fic taking place when they are married and around the age of 23. Its going to be awesome, short . . . but awesome. I'm really going to dedicate myself to making the best I can. This fic really wasn't anything other then something to get my creative juices flowing. . Oh and one more thing, I've agreed to help out a fellow author bye the name of Crow-Sensai, he has a Shikamaru fic about him joining the Akatsuki. Its very good, but he only has 3 chapters written and a giant case of writers-block. So i decided to help him out, hopefully I can give him chapter 4 shortly. I have yet to finalize it. Anyway, peace out.