NARUTO © Kishimoto Masashi • Shueisha • Studio Pierrot • TV Tokyo. All rights reserved. Non-profit fun ahead!
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Against the Tide
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Chapter Two
Naruto took a long stroll towards where he remembered the canteen was. It had been years - he had lost count, since he last stepped out of the laboratory and into the police headquarters. Now that it was nearly lunchtime, there were scores of officers and workers alike streaming into the common corridors from their offices and workrooms.
Some of the ones that were his age threw him curious glances, while others that were older directed hate-filled glares at him. To the friendlier ones he grinned and waved. To the hostile ones he stuck his tongue out and made a face.
Knowing that he would only be here for one mission saddened him slightly. He was sure that if he stayed longer, he would be able to meet up with more people who would acknowledge him, despite his rather unsightly record and heritage.
The canteen had not shifted from its original spot, although it looked slightly bigger and cleaner than the last time Naruto had seen it. He stepped in, teeming with anticipation, glancing about himself at the throng. He wondered fleetingly if he could find Sasuke, but dismissed the idea as soon as it came. There were many faces in the sea of people there - happy ones, angry ones, blank ones and sad ones. But there was no Sasuke. Slightly disappointed, Naruto wordlessly bought some sandwiches and shuffled to a lonely corner booth.
From his seat, he could see the many people going about with their daily lunch lives. The roar of their voices accompanied him, though only in the background and nothing more - just like it had always been from times past.
He wished there was a voice in the crowd that was only for him. He wondered how that would feel like.
As time slowly flowed on, he started to ponder about many things he was not able to in the laboratory - since they heavily sedated him into near-unconsciousness. Doubtless, his foremost thought was about Sasuke. Not that there was anything about /him/ that was worth any salt, but he could not deny the fact that it was Sasuke who brought him out from the torture that was the Laboratory. He was not an ungrateful person - he was just, as Iruka had mentioned, simply too unused to human contact to respond exemplarily. Sighing into his sandwich, he mumbled something incoherent to himself. He may not be a very happy Younin, but that didn't give Sasuke the right to act like a jerk either!
Turning his eyes to observe more of the world around him, Naruto found that he was blocked by the trunk of someone's body. His eyes scrolled upwards. He could hardly bite back his surprise. "Shikamaru!"
"Yo!" The young Chuunin officer saluted lazily with one hand, the other hand stuffed snugly into his pocket. "Where's Prince Frozen?" His eyes darted about the vicinity.
"Prince Frozen?" Naruto was confused. Then realisation struck him and he had to stop himself from grinning a little too maniacally. "Ooh, you mean the pain-in-the-ass Sasuke? I don't know. Haven't seen him since the meeting."
"Hmmm..." Shikamaru hummed, taking a seat on the bench opposite Naruto, surprising the boy. Naruto shifted slightly backwards, as if he was trying to slink into the cushion on the chair. Noticing this, Shikamaru leaned forward and tried not to laugh. "Relax, Naruto. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm not your signatory, yes, but believe me, it's far too troublesome to go around hurting Younins than it is to stay in their good books." He saw Naruto staring at him with confusion.
"Really?" The blond said after a while. "But Iruka-sensei always tells me that only my signatory wouldn't harm me. Everybody else couldn't be trusted..."
"Yes," Shikamaru nodded, "because the rules forbid your signatory from hurting you. I don't know about anyone else, but you can be sure I'm not going to hurt you in any way, form or manner." He sighed. "You worked with me in a mission before, haven't you? Stop being so uptight, Naruto," he sighed again. "It's very troublesome talking to you when you're so tensed up."
Naruto considered the matter for a while more, then brightened up considerably. He grinned at Shikamaru. "Hey, you're right! Surely not /everybody/ out there in the world is after me! I should stop being so suspicious! I don't wanna be able to hang around Sasuke /only/ anyway," he made a face. "He hardly ever says three words in a row without insulting me!"
"I thought you guys are partners from the same department?" Shikamaru commented offhandedly. This made Naruto frown.
"Yeah right!" The blond grumbled loudly. "I bet he'd rather see me dead and in three pieces in his mailbox or something! I don't even know why he signed me out in the first place!" He made a growl with his throat.
"That superior of his probably had something to do with it," Shikamaru waved nonchalantly in reply. "He's the one who can't stop talking about 'teamwork', 'teamwork' - so he probably just wanted to get Sasuke to exercise a bit of camaraderie with someone else, you know?"
The blond was engulfed by an unusual silence. Head lowered, he mumbled, "I see."
Shikamaru shot him a dark, knowing glance. "But," the dark-haired boy closed his eyes, stretched, and leaned back against the cushioned bench, "believe me when I say this, Naruto." The blond perked up slightly at the important-sounding tone. "He may seem that way, but Sasuke does /not/ want to see his partners dead, in pieces, or otherwise stuffed in his mailbox." He shrugged. "That means you too, Naruto."
Of course, the blond was anything but convinced. He leaned forward, about to question Shikamaru, when the boy raised a hand and hooted down the hall, "Chouji! Over here! Over here!"
Naruto turned in the direction of Shikamaru's shout. Waddling down the lane towards their table was a rather big-sized teenager, stocked from hand to elbow up to shoulder with snacks, cakes, dessert and assorted other sweet foods the canteen sold. The blond could feel a sweatdrop forming, all the more so as the boy Shikamaru had said was 'Chouji' came closer.
The minute Chouji reached the table, he slammed all his wares onto the desk with a loud crash. This movement upset some of the liquids also on the trays, but otherwise he was eased of his burden. The chubby boy sighed with relief. "Hey, Shikamaru," he wasted no time in striking up a conversation, "have you heard about that new BBQ restaurant they just set up across the street? Let's go there after duty today!"
"Urgh," Shikamaru shook his head in mock disbelief - exasperated but not frustrated. "The day you stop thinking about food is the day I start doing something about that troublesome hole in my roof... which I really should but going up there with all the tools is just so damned troublesome..."
"Haha!" Chouji guffawed. He noticed an extra pair of eyes on him, and turned to look at Naruto. "Who are you?" Chouji asked innocently, while Naruto shrank slightly back into his seat. Shikamaru may be acceptably nice to him, but it didn't mean that his friends would be as well. Iruka's words of caution still burned deeply in his mind.
Nevertheless, seeing that Shikamaru was shooting him expectant glances, he mustered up courage and grinned widely at Chouji. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! And I'm going to be the next Hokage, so you better remember that name properly!"
"Never heard of an idiot becoming Hokage before, though," Shikamaru mumbled in a muffled whisper, before Chouji could reply. "But if it does happen, remember to retire me early, okay? With a nice, big and fat retirement package. Yes, that'll be nice."
"You don't believe me!" Naruto whined. "I /am/ going to be the Hokage!" He furrowed his brows with determination and clenched his fists. "It's been my dream since I was young. It's the only thing I've been living for all this time."
Caught off guard at the sudden grit, Shikamaru scrutinised the blond carefully. Chouji simply stared with a mix of curiosity and wonder.
"You can dream what you want, as long as you don't trouble me..." Shikamaru finally said, shifting further into the booth and gesturing for Chouji to take the seat beside him. The chubbier boy plopped himself down heavily.
"Naruto, huh?" Chouji started laying out his food while mumbling. "Which department are you in? Traffic? Investigation? Underground?"
Noticing the mood had lightened due to Chouji's fiddling around with his food, Naruto became less tensed. "Err..." he scratched the whiskers on his cheek and looked away. "... the... Taihen... bu? Daimyoubu? Sorry, I can't remember..." His eyes narrowed into lines and he put a hand at the back of his head sheepishly. "Kakashi-sensei was using so many difficult words."
At the mention of Kakashi's name, Chouji almost choked on his apple. He thumped his chest furiously while the other two boys watched on with slight horror and fascination. Finally, he managed to swallow whatever was stuck. He gasped, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve and turned back to Naruto. "Kakashi-sensei? As in, /the/ Hatake Kakashi? You're in his department?"
"..." Naruto was not sure if he wanted to reply. "... yes... ?"
"It's the Anti-Youma Brigade; the Taikou Youma Butai," Shikamaru sighed from his seat. "Taiyoubu for short. At least remember the name of your department, Naruto?"
"Bah," the blond unwrapped another sandwich. "It's not like I'm going to be there for long."
"But-but," Chouji had finally recovered from his reverie and was gorging himself with potato chips while trying to speak. "It's the Taiyoubu! The coolest department in the force! You go around subduing mythical Youma with near-forbidden Jutsus! How much cooler can you get?"
"Oh." Naruto's eyes darkened slightly. He blinked at Chouji. "You really think hunting Youma down is cool?"
The question itself was innocent enough, though the atmosphere had suddenly gotten serious. Chouji stopped stuffing chips into his mouth and munched on the ones already inside, trying to guess the purpose of Naruto's question.
"It's not nice to hunt anyone down at all," he eventually said, calmly. "It's when they threaten the peace of the village and the people who matter to us that action has to be taken I guess. Honestly, there's no real difference between bad Youma and bad humans." Chouji upturned his lips. "They're all criminals who should be locked up for all the bad things they did!"
Naruto's blue eyes returned to it's original lustre. He stared openly in surprise. It was the first time he heard someone saying there was no difference between Youma and Ningen, and he was intrigued.
"Anyway," Shikamaru shrugged, "the both of us are in the patrol department if you need us." He relaxed into the seat and watched Chouji swallow his food. "Say," he suddenly turned his attention to the strangely silent Naruto and asked, "do you wanna join us for the barbeque shop tonight? After work?"
Obviously surprised at the invitation, Naruto's head jerked up from his sandwich. His eyes were so wide, they almost reached his ears. Quickly blinking so that they would not see his off-guard expression for too long, Naruto grinned and answered, "I would! I would! I would... but wait..." He frowned while putting a finger on his chin. "Drat! I forgot! I'm supposed to have ramen with Iruka-sensei tonight! So..." He pouted at the two boys opposite him. "Sorry... maybe next time!"
"Pfft," Chouji managed to mutter through his mouthful of potato chips. "BBQ is better than ramen any time!!"
Immediately, Naruto froze. He brought his traumatised, distraught eyes up to the chubbier boy and whispered in horror, "You don't know what you're saying!" He slammed his palms on the table and stood. "Ramen!! You've /never/ had real food until you had /ramen/!!!"
Chouji laughed heartily, still chomping away. "I'm not that particular over food, but ramen! Really! Come with us to the BBQ shop today and we'll have some real food! I'll even bring potato chips!!" The chubby boy stopped munching to hold out the almost conquered packet of chips to Naruto. "Want some now?"
"Ew, gross!" Naruto blanched, trying to lean back, as far away as he could. "You've been dripping drool in it all this time and still you offer it to other people? Yucks!"
Chouji shrugged. "I guess I'll eat it all then!"
Before Naruto could say another word and thus initiate a long argument, Shikamaru cut in, "Okay both you big babies, will you two just shut up and let me have my lunch in peace? One hour isn't exactly a very long time, you know."
"Grr!" Naruto growled, but otherwise did not restart the quarrel. He concentrated instead on his half-finished sandwich. Shikamaru was right, he realised. Lunch was only /this/ long, and so he had to cherish every moment of it!
"What rank are you now, Naruto?" Shikamaru quipped, after what seemed like a long silence. He had finished his food some time ago and was staring into space. Even as he asked the question, he did not look at Naruto in the face. His lazy eyes were instead latched upon the window beside them overlooking the sky.
"Err," Naruto pondered, shifting his eyes about. "Tokubetsu Genin still. Haven't changed from the last time I got my Special Genin license. What about you?"
"We both rose to Chuunin a couple of years ago," Chouji's voice came out muffled, but proud. He smiled even wider when Naruto gave a low gasp of admiration. "We were on the same Genin team, too! Shikamaru got promoted first, though. I think the judges were impressed with how fast he could run away!"
"Ooh, right," Naruto's eyes narrowed tauntingly. "I had first hand experience of that myself, personally."
The rustling of potato chips stopped, and Chouji blinked questioningly at Naruto. "You have?"
"I partnered him for a minor mission once," Shikamaru explained. "When I just got promoted and had to take on slightly more dangerous missions, they asked me to take a Youma-Ningen along. It was too troublesome to look through all the notes, so I just closed my eyes and drew a name from the lot. Tadah! Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto stuck a tongue out at him.
"That wasn't a very intelligent way of choosing a Youma," Chouji remarked.
"Sometimes it's too troublesome to be intelligent," Shikamaru remarked right back. "Well, Naruto was a great help, although things didn't always go the way we wanted it. When I next had to get another Youma-Ningen to partner me, I tried to apply for Naruto again but was rejected." The boy glanced at Naruto, who was as surprised as Chouji was. "I don't suppose you know why, Naruto?"
The blond remained silent for a long while. "I..." He eventually said, while blinking. "... I don't know. Actually I don't remember ever stepping out of the lab after that mission with you..."
"Naruto!" The shout was loud and compelling, causing all three heads to turn to stare. It was Iruka, and he stomped up to the table, shaking his head. "I knew you'd be lazing around somewhere here. Come on, we have work to do." Noticing the other boys for the first time, Iruka smiled at them. "Shikamaru! Chouji! It's good to see you again!"
"You know them, sensei?" Naruto blurted out loud.
"/Know/ them?" Iruka was still smiling, although his voice was now almost a low growl. Shikamaru and Chouji tried to shift as far as they could from the dangerous Chuunin. "They tortured me for six. Whole. Years in the Ninja Academy. I would be /lying/ if I said I didn't know them. Isn't that right, boys?" He directed his question to the duo, still trying to shrink away. Quickly, they both nodded. "Good. Now if you're done here, Naruto, let's head back. We have a lot of work to catchup on."
"Yes, sensei," Naruto glumly said, standing up to follow the already leaving Iruka. "See you, guys!" He cheerily waved goodbye to Shikamaru and Chouji.
Chouji pulled his hand out from his chip bag and waved. "See you!" He greeted back with a wide grin.
"Naruto," Shikamaru, on the other hand, sounded slightly more serious - although he still had that lazy drawl. "I don't wanna scare you, but watch your back carefully, okay? Watch it very very carefully. Because you never know when things will happen."
Naruto paused and turned. He shot Shikamaru a quizzical look over his shoulder.
The boy's face was grave. "You never know what kind of things will happen... especially when you're in the Taiyoubu."
There was no time for Naruto to inquire more, except to stare at Shikamaru. Iruka shouted for him to hurry up from the other side of the hall, and Naruto found himself subconsciously obeying - rather eagerly.
He was halfway gone from the sight of the other two boys when a voice from inside aroused.
/What are you running away from?/
It asked.
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23/8/2004
Part 3 of 16
(email XD!) XD (at) tougenkyou (dot) net
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Against the Tide
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Chapter Two
Naruto took a long stroll towards where he remembered the canteen was. It had been years - he had lost count, since he last stepped out of the laboratory and into the police headquarters. Now that it was nearly lunchtime, there were scores of officers and workers alike streaming into the common corridors from their offices and workrooms.
Some of the ones that were his age threw him curious glances, while others that were older directed hate-filled glares at him. To the friendlier ones he grinned and waved. To the hostile ones he stuck his tongue out and made a face.
Knowing that he would only be here for one mission saddened him slightly. He was sure that if he stayed longer, he would be able to meet up with more people who would acknowledge him, despite his rather unsightly record and heritage.
The canteen had not shifted from its original spot, although it looked slightly bigger and cleaner than the last time Naruto had seen it. He stepped in, teeming with anticipation, glancing about himself at the throng. He wondered fleetingly if he could find Sasuke, but dismissed the idea as soon as it came. There were many faces in the sea of people there - happy ones, angry ones, blank ones and sad ones. But there was no Sasuke. Slightly disappointed, Naruto wordlessly bought some sandwiches and shuffled to a lonely corner booth.
From his seat, he could see the many people going about with their daily lunch lives. The roar of their voices accompanied him, though only in the background and nothing more - just like it had always been from times past.
He wished there was a voice in the crowd that was only for him. He wondered how that would feel like.
As time slowly flowed on, he started to ponder about many things he was not able to in the laboratory - since they heavily sedated him into near-unconsciousness. Doubtless, his foremost thought was about Sasuke. Not that there was anything about /him/ that was worth any salt, but he could not deny the fact that it was Sasuke who brought him out from the torture that was the Laboratory. He was not an ungrateful person - he was just, as Iruka had mentioned, simply too unused to human contact to respond exemplarily. Sighing into his sandwich, he mumbled something incoherent to himself. He may not be a very happy Younin, but that didn't give Sasuke the right to act like a jerk either!
Turning his eyes to observe more of the world around him, Naruto found that he was blocked by the trunk of someone's body. His eyes scrolled upwards. He could hardly bite back his surprise. "Shikamaru!"
"Yo!" The young Chuunin officer saluted lazily with one hand, the other hand stuffed snugly into his pocket. "Where's Prince Frozen?" His eyes darted about the vicinity.
"Prince Frozen?" Naruto was confused. Then realisation struck him and he had to stop himself from grinning a little too maniacally. "Ooh, you mean the pain-in-the-ass Sasuke? I don't know. Haven't seen him since the meeting."
"Hmmm..." Shikamaru hummed, taking a seat on the bench opposite Naruto, surprising the boy. Naruto shifted slightly backwards, as if he was trying to slink into the cushion on the chair. Noticing this, Shikamaru leaned forward and tried not to laugh. "Relax, Naruto. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm not your signatory, yes, but believe me, it's far too troublesome to go around hurting Younins than it is to stay in their good books." He saw Naruto staring at him with confusion.
"Really?" The blond said after a while. "But Iruka-sensei always tells me that only my signatory wouldn't harm me. Everybody else couldn't be trusted..."
"Yes," Shikamaru nodded, "because the rules forbid your signatory from hurting you. I don't know about anyone else, but you can be sure I'm not going to hurt you in any way, form or manner." He sighed. "You worked with me in a mission before, haven't you? Stop being so uptight, Naruto," he sighed again. "It's very troublesome talking to you when you're so tensed up."
Naruto considered the matter for a while more, then brightened up considerably. He grinned at Shikamaru. "Hey, you're right! Surely not /everybody/ out there in the world is after me! I should stop being so suspicious! I don't wanna be able to hang around Sasuke /only/ anyway," he made a face. "He hardly ever says three words in a row without insulting me!"
"I thought you guys are partners from the same department?" Shikamaru commented offhandedly. This made Naruto frown.
"Yeah right!" The blond grumbled loudly. "I bet he'd rather see me dead and in three pieces in his mailbox or something! I don't even know why he signed me out in the first place!" He made a growl with his throat.
"That superior of his probably had something to do with it," Shikamaru waved nonchalantly in reply. "He's the one who can't stop talking about 'teamwork', 'teamwork' - so he probably just wanted to get Sasuke to exercise a bit of camaraderie with someone else, you know?"
The blond was engulfed by an unusual silence. Head lowered, he mumbled, "I see."
Shikamaru shot him a dark, knowing glance. "But," the dark-haired boy closed his eyes, stretched, and leaned back against the cushioned bench, "believe me when I say this, Naruto." The blond perked up slightly at the important-sounding tone. "He may seem that way, but Sasuke does /not/ want to see his partners dead, in pieces, or otherwise stuffed in his mailbox." He shrugged. "That means you too, Naruto."
Of course, the blond was anything but convinced. He leaned forward, about to question Shikamaru, when the boy raised a hand and hooted down the hall, "Chouji! Over here! Over here!"
Naruto turned in the direction of Shikamaru's shout. Waddling down the lane towards their table was a rather big-sized teenager, stocked from hand to elbow up to shoulder with snacks, cakes, dessert and assorted other sweet foods the canteen sold. The blond could feel a sweatdrop forming, all the more so as the boy Shikamaru had said was 'Chouji' came closer.
The minute Chouji reached the table, he slammed all his wares onto the desk with a loud crash. This movement upset some of the liquids also on the trays, but otherwise he was eased of his burden. The chubby boy sighed with relief. "Hey, Shikamaru," he wasted no time in striking up a conversation, "have you heard about that new BBQ restaurant they just set up across the street? Let's go there after duty today!"
"Urgh," Shikamaru shook his head in mock disbelief - exasperated but not frustrated. "The day you stop thinking about food is the day I start doing something about that troublesome hole in my roof... which I really should but going up there with all the tools is just so damned troublesome..."
"Haha!" Chouji guffawed. He noticed an extra pair of eyes on him, and turned to look at Naruto. "Who are you?" Chouji asked innocently, while Naruto shrank slightly back into his seat. Shikamaru may be acceptably nice to him, but it didn't mean that his friends would be as well. Iruka's words of caution still burned deeply in his mind.
Nevertheless, seeing that Shikamaru was shooting him expectant glances, he mustered up courage and grinned widely at Chouji. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! And I'm going to be the next Hokage, so you better remember that name properly!"
"Never heard of an idiot becoming Hokage before, though," Shikamaru mumbled in a muffled whisper, before Chouji could reply. "But if it does happen, remember to retire me early, okay? With a nice, big and fat retirement package. Yes, that'll be nice."
"You don't believe me!" Naruto whined. "I /am/ going to be the Hokage!" He furrowed his brows with determination and clenched his fists. "It's been my dream since I was young. It's the only thing I've been living for all this time."
Caught off guard at the sudden grit, Shikamaru scrutinised the blond carefully. Chouji simply stared with a mix of curiosity and wonder.
"You can dream what you want, as long as you don't trouble me..." Shikamaru finally said, shifting further into the booth and gesturing for Chouji to take the seat beside him. The chubbier boy plopped himself down heavily.
"Naruto, huh?" Chouji started laying out his food while mumbling. "Which department are you in? Traffic? Investigation? Underground?"
Noticing the mood had lightened due to Chouji's fiddling around with his food, Naruto became less tensed. "Err..." he scratched the whiskers on his cheek and looked away. "... the... Taihen... bu? Daimyoubu? Sorry, I can't remember..." His eyes narrowed into lines and he put a hand at the back of his head sheepishly. "Kakashi-sensei was using so many difficult words."
At the mention of Kakashi's name, Chouji almost choked on his apple. He thumped his chest furiously while the other two boys watched on with slight horror and fascination. Finally, he managed to swallow whatever was stuck. He gasped, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve and turned back to Naruto. "Kakashi-sensei? As in, /the/ Hatake Kakashi? You're in his department?"
"..." Naruto was not sure if he wanted to reply. "... yes... ?"
"It's the Anti-Youma Brigade; the Taikou Youma Butai," Shikamaru sighed from his seat. "Taiyoubu for short. At least remember the name of your department, Naruto?"
"Bah," the blond unwrapped another sandwich. "It's not like I'm going to be there for long."
"But-but," Chouji had finally recovered from his reverie and was gorging himself with potato chips while trying to speak. "It's the Taiyoubu! The coolest department in the force! You go around subduing mythical Youma with near-forbidden Jutsus! How much cooler can you get?"
"Oh." Naruto's eyes darkened slightly. He blinked at Chouji. "You really think hunting Youma down is cool?"
The question itself was innocent enough, though the atmosphere had suddenly gotten serious. Chouji stopped stuffing chips into his mouth and munched on the ones already inside, trying to guess the purpose of Naruto's question.
"It's not nice to hunt anyone down at all," he eventually said, calmly. "It's when they threaten the peace of the village and the people who matter to us that action has to be taken I guess. Honestly, there's no real difference between bad Youma and bad humans." Chouji upturned his lips. "They're all criminals who should be locked up for all the bad things they did!"
Naruto's blue eyes returned to it's original lustre. He stared openly in surprise. It was the first time he heard someone saying there was no difference between Youma and Ningen, and he was intrigued.
"Anyway," Shikamaru shrugged, "the both of us are in the patrol department if you need us." He relaxed into the seat and watched Chouji swallow his food. "Say," he suddenly turned his attention to the strangely silent Naruto and asked, "do you wanna join us for the barbeque shop tonight? After work?"
Obviously surprised at the invitation, Naruto's head jerked up from his sandwich. His eyes were so wide, they almost reached his ears. Quickly blinking so that they would not see his off-guard expression for too long, Naruto grinned and answered, "I would! I would! I would... but wait..." He frowned while putting a finger on his chin. "Drat! I forgot! I'm supposed to have ramen with Iruka-sensei tonight! So..." He pouted at the two boys opposite him. "Sorry... maybe next time!"
"Pfft," Chouji managed to mutter through his mouthful of potato chips. "BBQ is better than ramen any time!!"
Immediately, Naruto froze. He brought his traumatised, distraught eyes up to the chubbier boy and whispered in horror, "You don't know what you're saying!" He slammed his palms on the table and stood. "Ramen!! You've /never/ had real food until you had /ramen/!!!"
Chouji laughed heartily, still chomping away. "I'm not that particular over food, but ramen! Really! Come with us to the BBQ shop today and we'll have some real food! I'll even bring potato chips!!" The chubby boy stopped munching to hold out the almost conquered packet of chips to Naruto. "Want some now?"
"Ew, gross!" Naruto blanched, trying to lean back, as far away as he could. "You've been dripping drool in it all this time and still you offer it to other people? Yucks!"
Chouji shrugged. "I guess I'll eat it all then!"
Before Naruto could say another word and thus initiate a long argument, Shikamaru cut in, "Okay both you big babies, will you two just shut up and let me have my lunch in peace? One hour isn't exactly a very long time, you know."
"Grr!" Naruto growled, but otherwise did not restart the quarrel. He concentrated instead on his half-finished sandwich. Shikamaru was right, he realised. Lunch was only /this/ long, and so he had to cherish every moment of it!
"What rank are you now, Naruto?" Shikamaru quipped, after what seemed like a long silence. He had finished his food some time ago and was staring into space. Even as he asked the question, he did not look at Naruto in the face. His lazy eyes were instead latched upon the window beside them overlooking the sky.
"Err," Naruto pondered, shifting his eyes about. "Tokubetsu Genin still. Haven't changed from the last time I got my Special Genin license. What about you?"
"We both rose to Chuunin a couple of years ago," Chouji's voice came out muffled, but proud. He smiled even wider when Naruto gave a low gasp of admiration. "We were on the same Genin team, too! Shikamaru got promoted first, though. I think the judges were impressed with how fast he could run away!"
"Ooh, right," Naruto's eyes narrowed tauntingly. "I had first hand experience of that myself, personally."
The rustling of potato chips stopped, and Chouji blinked questioningly at Naruto. "You have?"
"I partnered him for a minor mission once," Shikamaru explained. "When I just got promoted and had to take on slightly more dangerous missions, they asked me to take a Youma-Ningen along. It was too troublesome to look through all the notes, so I just closed my eyes and drew a name from the lot. Tadah! Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto stuck a tongue out at him.
"That wasn't a very intelligent way of choosing a Youma," Chouji remarked.
"Sometimes it's too troublesome to be intelligent," Shikamaru remarked right back. "Well, Naruto was a great help, although things didn't always go the way we wanted it. When I next had to get another Youma-Ningen to partner me, I tried to apply for Naruto again but was rejected." The boy glanced at Naruto, who was as surprised as Chouji was. "I don't suppose you know why, Naruto?"
The blond remained silent for a long while. "I..." He eventually said, while blinking. "... I don't know. Actually I don't remember ever stepping out of the lab after that mission with you..."
"Naruto!" The shout was loud and compelling, causing all three heads to turn to stare. It was Iruka, and he stomped up to the table, shaking his head. "I knew you'd be lazing around somewhere here. Come on, we have work to do." Noticing the other boys for the first time, Iruka smiled at them. "Shikamaru! Chouji! It's good to see you again!"
"You know them, sensei?" Naruto blurted out loud.
"/Know/ them?" Iruka was still smiling, although his voice was now almost a low growl. Shikamaru and Chouji tried to shift as far as they could from the dangerous Chuunin. "They tortured me for six. Whole. Years in the Ninja Academy. I would be /lying/ if I said I didn't know them. Isn't that right, boys?" He directed his question to the duo, still trying to shrink away. Quickly, they both nodded. "Good. Now if you're done here, Naruto, let's head back. We have a lot of work to catchup on."
"Yes, sensei," Naruto glumly said, standing up to follow the already leaving Iruka. "See you, guys!" He cheerily waved goodbye to Shikamaru and Chouji.
Chouji pulled his hand out from his chip bag and waved. "See you!" He greeted back with a wide grin.
"Naruto," Shikamaru, on the other hand, sounded slightly more serious - although he still had that lazy drawl. "I don't wanna scare you, but watch your back carefully, okay? Watch it very very carefully. Because you never know when things will happen."
Naruto paused and turned. He shot Shikamaru a quizzical look over his shoulder.
The boy's face was grave. "You never know what kind of things will happen... especially when you're in the Taiyoubu."
There was no time for Naruto to inquire more, except to stare at Shikamaru. Iruka shouted for him to hurry up from the other side of the hall, and Naruto found himself subconsciously obeying - rather eagerly.
He was halfway gone from the sight of the other two boys when a voice from inside aroused.
/What are you running away from?/
It asked.
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23/8/2004
Part 3 of 16
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