1) Will feature Shonen-ai and possible Yaoi later!!! That means "boy love". Yuri is also a possibility along with Het relationships. Don't like it, don't read it. It seems fairly simple.
2) SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you haven't read up to at least chapter 192 in the manga, don't read this fanfic……….or at least don't say I didn't warn you!
3) Not beta'd. Read at your own peril.
4) I'm an insomniac and started writing this at 5am……… be afraid, be VERY afraid!
Pairings: I'm not telling!!! Mwuhahahahahaha :::cough, cough:::: hahahahaha!
Actually, I'm not sure yet. Let's just say that I love RockLee x Sakura and Kakashi x Iruka!!! I really can't see these 4 with anyone else (well… maybe Sakura x Ino but… I LOVE Rock Lee so………) All other pairings (yaoi, yuri, het) are up in the air. I guess it's just the way the story decides to unfold or if anyone voices any preferences I'm ALL ears ::::hint, hint; nudge, nudge:::
Right now I'm leaning towards the main couples being SasuNaru, NejiNaru, and GaaraNaru with an imagined ShikaNaru (ie Sasuke's freaking out and thinks there's something between them) But hey! I'm versatile ::::cough, cough::::: fickle and easily influenced ::::cough, cough::::: so you never know!!
Notes:This fic takes place 6 years after the current manga chapter. Everything else, you'll find out later.
Disclaimer: Naruto, I disclaim thee!
Drastic Measures
Tension
Naruto sprinted down the halls of the vast Central building that served as Ninja headquarters, the sound of his feet as they slapped against the marble echoing as he ran.
"Kuso, kuso, kuso!" he muttered under his breath as he speed down the corridors, looking at his watch. He was late. The blonde had taken a wrong turn somewhere back and it'd cost him fifteen minutes until he found the uppermost level of the huge building. He must be getting closer, he reasoned, after all the floors were marbled here.
He let out a sigh of undisguised relief as he turned a corner and saw the giant oak doors of the Hokage's office, still opened wide. The meeting hadn't started yet. A smile came to Naruto's face as he spotted the figure propped up haphazardly against the wall directly opposite the lofty entrance. Even leaning against the partition the jounin's stance was easy and relaxed, the dark haired shinobi holding himself in a naturally indolent manner that no one else could ever possibly mimic.
"Oi, Shikamaru!" the blonde called out as he skidded to a halt in front of his friend, leaning over his knees and gasping for breath.
"Baka, you're late," the dark haired jounin chided, a lazy lilt to his voice. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and flashed the teen an impish grin.
"Eh, heh heh heh………. Tsunade-baba isn't here yet, is she?" the blonde asked nervously, peering over Shikamaru's shoulder and into the large, crowded office. From his vantage point he couldn't see if the legendary Senin was present, the Hokage's desk obscured by the many jounins who stood packed tightly inside the room as they anxiously waited for the meeting to begin. The tension was so thick Naruto could feel the oppressive weight outside in the corridor.
"Tch," Shikamaru huffed, stuffing his hands into his pockets roughly, "The old hag isn't supposed to be here for another five minutes." Naruto blinked, wide eyed and confused for a moment.
"Eh? But I thought you said………"
"I did," the genius cut him off impatiently, "and if I'd given you the right time you'd've been here twenty minutes late and you would be bothering me for the rest of the meeting, asking to explain what you missed." Shikamaru's eyes glimmered in silent amusement as he watched Naruto's face contort into an angry pout. The blonde puffing out his cheeks indignantly, annoyed partially because his friend had so little faith in himandpartiallybecause he knew the other teen was right.
"Demo…this place is so damn big," Naruto muttered, crossing his arms over his chest bitterly.
"Hn," was his friend's only reply, the corner of his lips quirking as he suppressed a grin.
"Besides, I had to explore the place a little before I came," the blonde announced loudly, brightening up to his usual robust self, "since I'm going to be working here as Hokage someday!"
"Baka," Shikamaru said matter-of-factly as he grabbed the collar of his friend's jumpsuit and dragged him into the office. His face was stern as he pulled the muttering blonde into the crowded room and made his way over to Neji who stood with his usual impassive dignity, pressed against the wall in the back of the room.
The milky-eyed jounin merely nodded as his teammates approached. In the past three years since he had earned the rank of jounin, Neji found himself teamed up with Naruto and Shikamaru more often than not, and despite himself he thought of the two younger teens as his teammates more than he ever did with TenTen and Rock Lee. Perhaps it was because he respected and relied on them more.
"Shikamaruuuu!" Naruto whined, flailing at the jounin who still held a firm grip on the cloth around the blonde's neck. "Let go, dammit!"
Neji sighed and looked down at the arms crossed in front of his chest, suppressing the urge to smirk. In a real fight he knew Naruto could probably kick both their asses, coming up with unexpected, innovative strategies and producing frightening amounts of chakra. But if a mission wasn't on the line the blonde turned back into the spastic, loud idiot they knew and grudgingly… tolerated.
Shikamaru looked down with wry amusement shining in his eyes as the blonde continued to struggle.
"How troublesome," he sighed, letting go of Naruto's collar and sending him to the floor with a muffled "oomph!" The blonde glared up at the pony tailed jounin, his eyes narrowed to slits as he rubbed his butt. Shikamaru extended a hand out to his friend, feeling slightly guilty for taking out his anxiety on the blonde.
But it honestly seemed that Naruto was the only one in the entire village who was unaffected by the recent string of violence in the surrounding country side and the growing number of ninja who had gone out on assignments and never returned. It was, in a weird way, almost therapeutic to pick on the blonde a little, and for a moment Shikamaru could understand why Sasuke treated Naruto the way he did sometimes.
The pony tailed genius scowled at the thought of the last surviving member of the Uchiha clan, feeling the bitter taste of hatred rise up in the back of his throat like bile. He shook his head slightly, clearing all thought of the traitorous bastard from his head as Naruto took the offered hand. The blonde began to mutter obscenities under his breath as he was pulled from the ground, bumping into the surrounding shinobi as he stood.
The older jounins glared at Naruto wickedly as he nudged up against them before turning back to the front of the room, pointedly ignoring him. The blonde sighed as he squeezed himself between Shikamaru and Neji, his body squished uncomfortably between two of his regular teammates. He didn't want to give anyone else a reason to cast those cold eyes on him again.
Although in recent years between gaining recognition from two of the three legendary Senins, and proving himself on countless missions many of the shinobi had cultivated a grudging respect-- or at the very least tolerance-- for the demon vessel and those eyes while not warm were no longer as hateful. The villagers on the other hand were another story entirely. However Naruto did notice that when he was around Shikamaru the glaring disgusted looks came less frequently and with less intensity. He supposed that was one of the reasons why he liked being around the genius ninja. That and because Shikamaru had, in one way or another, always acknowledged the loudmouth shinobi. Even at the academy. But…
Since Chouji's death Shikamaru hadn't really been the same. After the first few months he started interacting with the other shinobi who graduated from his class, but there was a spark in his eyes that seemed to have died with his childhood friend. It was weeks before he did anything but sleep, go on missions, and train.
Everyone had been relieved beyond words when the lazy ninja had started looking at clouds again, so relieved in fact that the adults didn't even care that it was the vessel of the Kyubi that got him to do it. If spending time with the Hidden Leaf's number one loudest ninja was what helped Shikamaru out of his depressive funk, then they were willing to overlook their hatred of the blonde in the mean time.
Only, things didn't work out quite the way the villagers were expecting. Because even as time wore on it was only with Naruto and later Ino that the genius ever seemed at peace. When neither of them were with him, there was a haunted look lurking behind his dark eyes and it wasn't until one of their loud, grating voices sounded nearby that any spark of life could really be discerned on his face.
Adversely, Shikamaru couldn't stand to be in the general vicinity of Sasuke. Chouji's death being a direct result of the Uchiha survivor's brief abdication, it was likely that Shikamaru would never forgive him. Privately, those who knew the events surrounding Chouji's death suspected that the dark haired genius might try to seek revenge on the shigan user someday. And he probably would have, if not for Naruto.
Because as much as the blonde loudmouth complained, Shikamaru knew that in a weird, dysfunctional, totally illogical way Sasuke was to Naruto what Choujihad beento him. And he couldn't hurt the blonde idiot like that. Naruto was precious to him and so what was precious to Naruto was at the very least safe from Shikamaru. But if things ever changed, if Naruto died (not that he wanted to think about that… but he couldn't help it sometimes) or if Sasuke ever hurt the blonde again, then Shikamaru would slit the bastard's throat.
Naruto realized this, in the vague way thoughts that have never been given voice to are understood. And if anything it made him an even more successful ninja, because he realized that if he were ever to die then either Sasuke or Shikamaru (he couldn't predict which) would follow him soon after. And he would do anything to protect his precious people.
Even live.
So in the mean time, the blonde kept the two dark haired ninja apart from one another, hoping that perhaps they could forget or at least dull the tension and bitterness that existed between them.
Naruto leaned back against the hard wall and lowered his head in thought. All the jounin in the Leaf had been called here today since the old hag was going to make an announcement concerning the safety of the village. The jounin being elite ninja, there were few enough of them to fit into her huge office (barely, even though it basically took up the entire upper story of Central Headquarters) and being elite they were privileged with information other members of the community were not privy to.
It was a sure thing that both Shikamaru and Sasuke would be there, though hopefully they wouldn't come in contact with each other. On the whole, once Naruto realized that some things can never be repaired, he generally tried to keep his two friends as far apart as physically possible.
Usually it wasn't hard. Tsunade-baba seemed to understand Sasuke and Shikamaru's mutual animosity and assigned them missions accordingly. They were never teamed together and usually it was orchestrated so that when one was on leave in the village the other was out on assignment. In fact, it seemed their only link to one another was Naruto.
It was strange, though perhaps fortunate, that both jounin seemed to work best with the loudmouthed ninja. Since most adult shinobi were appalled by the idea of working with a 'demon' Naruto was usually teamed with members of the younger generation, those who didn't know of his connection to the Nine Tails. And with the hyperactive blonde's unfathomable stamina and willingness to prove himself, sending him out on missions almost continuously wasn't much of a problem. In fact, Tsunade had begun to joke that Naruto was working harder than her.
She was only half kidding.
As it stood, Tsunade usually paired the Kyubi with Neji and Shikamaru half the time and the other half paired him with Sasuke and Shino. Needless to say, interacting between the two groups was difficult for the blonde, but if he ever wanted to be Hokage he was going to have to learn how to deal with delicate matters such as this.
But Naruto hated having the people he held dear to him at odds with one another, and even after three years he still found it difficult to accept. He often found himself forgetting the animosity that existed between his friends since it didn't usually see it on a daily basis.
It was only on the few occasions that Shikamaru and Sasuke were forced to come into contact with one another that the blonde remembered… and even then he sometimes screwed up and caused even more tension between the two (even though he was fairly certain that was now impossible).
Naruto could sympathize with Shikamaru's hatred for Sasuke but he wasn't even sure why Sasuke seemed to loathe the pony tailed ninja. He only knew that Uchiha seemed to hate Nara with as much passion as the other hated him. Perhaps something had happened between the two that he didn't know about…
Either way, Naruto vowed with a determined nod as he wiggled uncomfortably between his two teammates, he wouldn't let things between two of his most important people become any worse. He would just make sure they didn't see each other during the meeting, it was as simple as that.
"You're actually on time, dobe" a cool baritone interrupted his thoughts. Naruto lifted his head, his brow still creased by thought, as he looked up to meet the gaze of his childhood rival and first real friend.
"Tch, Sasuke. You bastard, Of course I'm on time," he replied automatically before lowering his head to return to his musings.
How was he going to make sure they didn't come near each other? That was the real problem. It was likely that Sasuke would seek Naruto out in the crowd; he usually did. Maybe if Naruto moved away from Shikama----
Wait.
Naruto lifted his head again and gulped.
Sasuke's eyes flashed menacingly as he noticed the close proximity between Nara and Naruto. Their shoulders touching and the sides of their outer thighs brushing against each other as they pushed up next to one another in the cramped space of the Hokage's office. Naruto's eyes followed the jounin's gaze to Shikamaru and he noticed that his other friend was glaring back at the Uchiha with equal hatred.
"KUSO!!!" the blonde yelled, slamming his sandaled foot hard onto the marble floor. 'Shit! I did it again!' he seethed as he quickly grabbed the raven haired shinobi by his blue shirt and hurriedly shoved him through the crowd. Calling back to Neji and Shikamaru with a muffled "I'm gonna go over here! Ja ne!" Naruto disappeared into the throng of shinobi with lightning speed, pulling Sasuke with him.
"Let go, dobe," Sasuke said calmly once Naruto had dragged him clear across the room, making more than one jounin brandish a kunai at them as the two teens shoved their way through the mass of heavily armed and incredibly skilled shinobi. Sasuke's wrist tingled pleasantly where the blonde still held him. Naruto looked down at his hand, realized that he was still holding onto his rival,and promptlyleaped back like he burned himself.
"Ewww! Sasuke germs!" the idiot shouted, making a production of whipping his hand on his pants. Sasuke rolled his eyes and was about to make some kind of derogatory comment directed at the blonde when the constant murmur that filled the office abruptly stopped. The raven haired jounin looked to the front of the room.
Tsunade-sama was finally there.
Naruto, meanwhile, continued to wipe his palm across the coarse cloth of his jumpsuit. Sasuke nudged him in the stomach to get his attention. Hard.
"Ooomp!" The kyubi grunted as he was elbowed in the gut and glared up at his rival. Why was everyone picking on him today? "Teme, Sasu-" he began, but the raven haired jounin smacked him upside the head before he could say another word and pointed toward the front of the room.
"Shut up, Dead Last. The Hokage's here," He said in a low, hushed voice.
"Oh"
"We're all very busy so I'll make this quick… I know many of you have witnessed first hand the rash of violence and death that has broken out in the area during the last few months," her voice was loud but somber, "And more of you have lost friends and comrades on missions that were not supposed to be dangerous," Many of the jounins in the crowd nodded, grief and anxiety evident on their features.
"We are not the only ones suffering under these circumstances. As Hokage it is my responsibility to protect the people of this village and this country." Tsunade paused, her face stern and certain but her eyes were tired as she continued "And so the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Sand have agreed to an alliance."
A soft murmur was emitted from the shinobi gathered in the room as a few began to discuss this surprising development amongst themselves. But it was quickly silenced as they redirected their attention back to their leader.
"For now, the alliance is nothing more than an acknowledgement of a common threat to both our villages. A few select shinobi from the Sand will come to the Kohona and a few from Kohona will go to the Hidden Sand as a sign of good faith. The rest of the village will be informed of these developments in due time. Until then, I expect you Jounin to keep an eye on our… guests, and make them feel welcome."
There was a silence from the crowd. The meeting had done nothing to ease the minds of the shinobi there, but had instead merely added to their anxiety.
"That is all," the Hokage said after a long moment, letting the information sink in, "You are dismissed."
"Wait a minute, Tsunade-baba!" a loud voice echoed through the silent hall "Why the HELL are we working with the Hidden Sand Village?!?! We can take care of this on our own!" Naruto cried out, voicing the question on everyone's mind. Anger and surprise were etched onto his face.
After all, it was only a few uprisings here and there when you got right down to it.
Tsunuade looked in the direction of the blonde and let out a weary sigh.
"Because," she said matter-of-factly, exhaustion seeping into her voice, "Orochimaru is back."
Dun, dun, DUN!!!!!
TBC… (probably )
