UN-BETA'ED!

Chapter 4

The Scent: Part 2

"Now that was fucking great!" Naruto beamed happily and stretched out.

"Tsk, so troublesome," said none other than Nara Shikamaru who was sitting beside the girl. He looked inside the food can he was holding, "you sure eat a lot. Are you certain you're a girl?"

"Was that some sort of a perverted suggestion, Nara?" the blonde mused and laid back at the base of а tree they had left their bags on. "Besides," she spoke as she probed her hands behind her head, "What a girl wants, a girl gets, they say."

"Girls are troublesome."

The blonde jumped and pointed a finger at him accusingly, "You're one to speak!" Then her expression became conspiratorial, her hands came up cover her wide grin. "I wouldn't say you were troubled when you were sucking-face with Temari-chan last time I came to your pl-…gyah! Dammit, what was that for!?" Shika had just thrown one of the empty metal cans at her direction. He rubbed his forehead and sighed. He gathered his things and put everything in his backpack, then left it aside.

"Let's just rest."

Shika crowed to her and she offered him a place on the orange jacket that now had the function of a blanket. Shika spread his arms and Naruto was fast to snuggle on his shoulder. There had been some unanswered question from last night's accident, but that could wait. They had been through so much together and now, as they simply lay there watching the clouds lazily crossing through the sky, it felt like the chain of their friendship was unbreakable.

"Ne, Shika," Naruto started off in a soft voice, mesmerized by the fluffy clouds above, "did I say something bad?"

Beside her, Shika sighed.

"No," he looked to the side and said as if he was admitting something unpleasant "…I guess I just miss her a little." The girl smiled.

"I'm sure you'll get to see her soon. I'm really happy for you Shika." A sad smile graced her features, "at least one of us has found love."

"Tsk, what are you talking about, Naruto?" He tried to sound carelessly, but the blonde could still sense the hidden tension in his voice, "even if Mister Perfect came on a white horse and said he wanted you, like hell I'd let him have you," said he and drew her closer.

She laughed at his unusual vigor.

"Wouldn't it be too troublesome for your lazy ass to bother?"

Shika huffed.

"I'm a genius, remember? I'll think of something."

"No need for now." She stretched her arms up in the air, "I plan on staying single or a looong time…which would probably be the rest of my life."

Shikamaru smiled, "you never know."

They lay just like that, careless, cloud-watching, and content. It was a good time.

And then, just as Shika was talking and Naruto was laughing, her voice stuck in her throat and she fell quiet.

"And he-…uh?" The boy looked down at her. "Naruto?" A strange feeling flooded him. She suddenly shot up to a sitting position and stared blankly ahead. Shika sat up too and followed her gaze, but spotted nothing. What had provoked such a reaction in the plain decor of trees and grass? "Naruto?"

He reached to touch her arm and in the matter of a millisecond, she had pushed him onto the ground roughly and pinned his hands beside his head. The girl held him in an iron grip.

"Ugh!" He grunted at the used force. "The fuck, Naruto?" And then Naruto bent down as she was sitting on his abdomen and inhaled his scent deeply: as the girl came to his head, she made a disgusted face as if she had smelled something rotten. Just as Shikamaru was about to say something, still ignoring the strange feeling in his stomach and considering this all to be just a game, the girl opened her eyes and shot a look to the side, inside the forest. It was then that Shika took notice in how animalistic her gaze was and took account of the power she was pinning him down with. Naruto was sitting on him, staring intently at the dense forest: she was not breathing, not moving, not even blinking. The girl looked like a wild cat, sneaking at its prey and ready to attack: her back was as straight as a string. Feeling puzzled but already with his brain working on full speed, Shika held his breath and waited.

And then.

Just as fast and abruptly as Naruto had pinned him down, now she disappeared from above him and, be it surprise or astonishment, it took a few moment for Shika to register the lack of weight on him.

"Shit," he immediately took off after her as he saw a flash of yellow and orange dashing through the trees. And in a completely different direction to what they were supposed to go, might he add.

The girl was fast, Shika knew it better than anyone else, but he had a trick up his sleeve.

"Shadow transporting jutsu!" the male sank into thin air only to reappear from a shadow cast by the trees a mere few feet behind the outraged girl. He'd have to do it, he knew he had no choice before him. Shika attacked the blonde with a shadow and it happened just as he had predicted – she dodged it and jumped down to the ground. If it was Naruto, he reasoned, she would've figured out I was plotting something. The thing is, I have the feeling this is not quite the Naruto I know.

Shikamaru jumped right behind her, "Kagemane no jutsu!" Shadows snaked to Naruto and pinned her in place. She roared, she trashed, she struggled.

"Tch, you're making it so troublesome, Naruto," Shika hissed as he fought to gain full control. He had her walk to a tree and then on the male's command they both fell to their knees. Slowly but surely, Shika crawled to her and pressed to her from behind. "It's okay, Naruto, it's okay," he tried silencing her as the blonde kept roaring.

The male was searching for a chakra-suppressing tag when, all of a sudden, Naruto slipped out of his jutsu's control and kicked him roughly off of her. Cussing under his breath, Shikamaru pulled himself together and took off once again. There was one general problem, though. The forest area was about to end.

That meant that his source of shading would come to an end.

And without his shadows, he was nearly defenseless.

Naruto ran like a wild animal, jumping over stones and kicking away trees. It was too soon to guess and right now he had other things on his hands, but if it was up to Shika, he was nearly sure the Kyuubi had taken over. Which meant he had to act. Fast.

A broad meadow lay ahead with not a single cast of shadow on it and Shika had only seconds before he was stripped off of his chances of retrieving the girl. Forming the hand seals, just as Naruto jumped out in the broad space of the sunny meadow, Shikamaru shouted,

"Shadow Sewing Technique!"

Shadow tentacles reached out and wrapped around the blonde's ankle. She fell and hit her head on a stone.

And then Naruto lost consciousness.

A double update and a new story, wuuuuut, is this really me we're talking about? Haha. Okay dear readers (if I even have any readers), please remember to review and be patient with me. Chapters will get longer as the story gets more stable, meaning when Gaara and Naruto finally meet, which isn't that far away, actually. Now these are just fragments that will set the plot, blahblahblah.

TBC...