Chapter 1 has been revised a bit, so check that, and as always I do not own Naruto : )

It had been DAYS since the incident at the academy with Kiba and Shikamaru, and Kumo was no closer to getting her answer than she was the day that it had happened. She had tried to talk with Iruka-sensei, but he was always too busy to talk with her about the incident, and when she tried to discuss it with Mizuki-sensei, he stated that no-one saw Shikamaru do anything, so they couldn't do anything without hard proof since in his words "Who would believe you?".

After that it was her every intention to question Shikamaru the moment she saw him the next day, but at every opportunity Mizuki-sensei either interrupted her or Shikamaru almost literally disappeared with no trace of being found. It was clear at this point though that he was avoiding her, and she didn't like it, that's why she was taking things into her own hands.

It was currently early morning and the sun had just started to rise over the horizon. The perfect time where a seasoned shinobi would just be getting ready to start their day, and one extremely lazy academy student would still be avoiding getting out of bed, and that's how Kumo found herself leisurely strolling through the streets towards the outer edge of the village her hands stuffed in her pockets as she got closer and closer to her destination.

"Hey!" Kumo stopped in her tracks and looked over he shoulder back at a blonde bubble of joy that was running straight at her. When he finally caught up with her, he crossed his arms and asked "What are you doing up so early?"

Kumo bent over and picked up a stick of wood off the ground and nonchalantly answered "Going to get some answers." She shrugged her shoulders and continued on her path.

"What do you mean?" Confusion laced the blonde's voice as he followed his best friend farther and farther away from the center of the town.

Kumo just shrugged her should and offered an off-hand comment, "You're smart you can figure it out."

The two continued walking in silence until the came to the front of a clan compound, the Nara compound to be exact.

"You're not doing what I think you're doing, are you?"

"Maybe, can you play along?" A mischievous tone danced in her question as she walked to the largest house and boldly rose up her hand and knocked three times.

The duo waited patiently, or anxiously in Naruto's case as he continuously bounced from foot to foot, and after a few minutes the door finally opened up to reveal a rather disgruntled looking man with scars across his face.

"Do you realize what time it is?" The man drawled leaning on the door frame, looking down at the red head and the blonde who were grinning sheepishly back at him.

"Well yeah," Kumo rolled her eyes as if it was the silliest question she could have been asked.

"Do you realize who that is?" Naruto's voice whispered in her ear.

Kumo cocked her head to the side for the moment as she sized up the man in front of her. He had two scars across his face one running up the side of his forehead and the other from the back corner of his jaw up across his cheek. He had black hair that was pulled back in to a pony tail and a short goatee. He was wearing what appeared to be a fishnet shirt, and standard issue shinobi pants. Kumo was certain that if it wasn't so early in the morning, he would have a chunin vest on as well as a hitai-ate on as well.

"Well of course I do!" she giggled slightly as she looked back at Naruto, her eyes crinkling upwards showing the smile that was surely hidden beneath her mask. "This is Shikaku-Inei-sama. He's Shikamaru's father. He's also the Jounin Commander." Kumo's eyebrow raised slightly as if challenging that knowledge with man himself.

"You going to answer why you're at my door this early?"

"Well that's easy sir, with Shikamaru being soooo lazy, we were afraid that he was going to oversleep for the genin exam this morning, so Naruto and I brought it upon ourselves to escort him to the academy this morning so he would be on time!" Kumo held her hands behind her back, the stick that she had picked up earlier on her walk safely tucked up her sleeve, as she portrayed the face of innocence through what little could be seen of her facial expressions.

"I appreciate you being worried about my son, but he's up already. He's feeding the deer as a part of his chores. He'll be along to the academy shortly. Now if you don't mind…." Shikaku trailed off leaving the unanswered request of 'please go on your way' hanging on the air.

Kumo stood in front of the elder Nara for a moment just smiling as she listened to her surroundings before she finally answered with a very lively "Of course! Thanks, Inei-sama!" as she turned on her heel towards the entrance of the compound.

The duo was just about to reach the main entrance of the compound when Kumo suddenly turned and took off running towards the forest that was immediately to her left.

"I knew you wouldn't just let it rest at that." Naruto muttered from behind her as he too started to run to catch back up with her. "Is this about what happened last week?"

"Yes. I got to know why he did what he did!" Kumo's tone was frustrated portraying her true emotions for once, quickly attracting the attention of her orange clad friend.

"Kumo-" he paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, "If you know what you're doing, then I will trust you and follow your plan."

"Perfect."

A few minutes later found Kumo hiding high up in a tree, and Naruto walking nonchalantly through the forest with his hands held behind his head. He was doing the opposite of what he was taught by Minoru-san and was being rather loud as he tracked through the woods as he headed in the direction that Kumo told him that their target was currently at, assumingly feeding the deer. As he got closer, he made sure to be extra clumsy, before finally and triumphantly entering the clearing that Shikamaru was in by tripping across a root that was barely sticking out of the ground, causing him to go flying in to the clearing and landing at the young shadow user's feet.

There was a moment of silence as Shikamaru looked down at where Naruto had landed at his feet and he rose his eyebrow before muttering "Troublesome."

"Hehe," Naruto laughed sheepishly scratching the back of his head in mock embarrassment, as he slowly picked himself up off the ground. "Hey Shikamaru, what are you doing here?"

"I should be the one asking you that, you are on my property after all."

"Well how was I supposed to know that this was your property? It's not like you have a sign up or anything." Naruto crossed his arms and stuck his nose up in the air.

"Well the fact that you would have had to enter through the front of the compound should have given you a pretty good answer, loser."

"Oh." Naruto looked shocked at the answer and then touched his fingers to his chin looking like he was processing the information. "So that's what we passed through."

"What do you mean, we?" Shikamaru asked dangerously, his eyes narrowing as he took a step back with each step forward that Naruto took.

"He meant me."

Shikamaru had no time to react as a red-head dropped out of the tree just behind him and forced him to the ground, smashing his face in to the dirt, as she sat on his back placing her legs on either side of his body.

She couldn't hear what came out of his mouth but knew he was trying to say something through the dirt caked into his mouth, so she grabbed his ponytail, and held a kunai to his neck as she picked his face up off the ground.

"Care to say that again?" malice dripped from Kumo's voice as she whispered into Shikamaru's ear.

"You're such a troublesome woman," Shikamaru mumbled spitting the dirt out of his mouth.

"And I'm going to keep being troublesome until you tell me what happened last week."

"I don't know what you're talking ab-" before Shikamaru could finish Kumo had stuck his head back in the dirt.

"Try that again. I know you're lying."

"This is such a dr-" again his face went back in the dirt.

"I just want an answer as to what happened Shika-kun," an innocence laced her voice this time, and it reminded Shikamaru of the time that the lady from T&I stopped by. What was her name again?

This time he made no motion to move and instead decided to glare at Naruto from the corner of his eye. He kept his eyes trained on Naruto as his brain tried to go through all the ways to get out of this mess. His hands were incapacitated so he couldn't attempt his shadow possession jutsu to get her off of him, and even if he did, he was sure Naruto would just back his friend up. The two of them were nearly inseparable after all. How could he have been so stupid? He should have realized that the troublesome red-head would have been somewhere close by. He should have-

"One last chance, Shika-kun," he felt Kumo press the knife a little closer to his neck as she picked his face up out of the ground. "Dear-old daddy is going to be here any minute. Do you want him to hear what you did, or would you rather just keep it between the three of us?" Her voice took on a pouty tone, and it was grating on his nerves.

"Fine!" He mumbled through clenched teeth. He took as deep of a breath as he could with the girl sitting on his back before he continued speaking. "It was some sort of Genjutsu."

"You're smarter than that. Try again." Kumo growled pushing the knife even closer to his neck.

"I'm being serious." The raven-haired boy gritted back. "It was so subtle that I had no idea what was even happening until it was over." He paused and glared as he heard Naruto scoff next to him. "I thought I was restraining Kiba. Whoever placed the Genjutsu had me seeing you as Kiba and vice-versa. I didn't even realize what had happened until there were flowers blowing across the field and Iruka was barking at Kiba. I got out of there as quick as I could when I realized that Iruka didn't see what I had done."

"And how is that possible, that a seasoned shinobi missed you preforming the shadow possession jutsu?"

"Beats me. That's what I've been trying to figure out all week."

If Kumo wasn't paying attention she would have missed the resentment that was barely hidden in his voice.

"You should have told me earlier." Kumo said as she got up off of Shikamaru's back.

"I tried. Mizuki-sensei kept telling me not to bother you because of the supposed 'trauma' the incident put you through, and it was too troublesome to argue with him." Shikamaru stood up and brushed the dirt off the front of his clothes before shoving his hands into his pockets. "Do you mind not threatening my life next time?"

Kumo tilted her head slightly to the right in mock confusion before exclaiming "Oh! You mean this?" she held up the kunai to the raven's face. "It's not dangerous, it's just a stick." She shrugged her shoulders as the metallic colour drained from the knife and it took shape of the stick that she had picked up off the ground prior to getting to the compound.

"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed, and if it was even possible slouched further.

"You could say that again." Shikamaru looked to the side of the clearing to see his father waltzing in to the clearance. "Your mother is going to kill me when she sees the state of your clothes. And you two, I thought I told you we would take care of getting Shikamaru here to school." It wasn't a question, and it made a shiver run through Kumo's spine.

"Well-" Kumo started but was cut off by her fellow blonde trouble maker.

"We had every intention of leaving, but then we ran into a black cat." Naruto explained as if it was the most common thing in the world. "And they're bad luck you know. So, we obviously had to take the long way. We just didn't realize that the long way would bring us here."

Shikaku stopped for a moment, and it seemed as if his left eyebrow was going to meet his hairline as it kept raising higher and higher, before he audibly groaned and turned back towards the way he came. "Well come on. It's breakfast time."

Kumo and Naruto hung back for a moment as Shikamaru trudged after his father, before the two friends turned to leave the way they came.

"I said, it's breakfast time." The duo stopped cold as the tone in Shikaku's voice turned icy and they turned back to the elder shinobi. "And if someone has to take the fall for Shikamaru's clothes, it's not going to be me."

Kumo and Naruto exchanged a look before the two shrugged their shoulders and ran after the Nara duo.

Shikaku glanced out of the corner of his eye at the red head that had decided to link arms with him. "Hayashi, you're going to be the death of me."

Shikamaru couldn't believe that Kumo had gotten him out of getting into trouble with his mother when she saw his dirt covered clothes, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he left it go and was now currently trudging along the path to go to school for the genin exam as Kumo and Naruto babbled next to him.

Kumo was an unknown variable in his life. Naruto had become one as well. Naruto, he had originally written off as a prankster, a troublemaker, someone who despite his resolve to become Hokage one day, he had doubted that would happen. But he had seen over the year and a half or so how much better he was becoming at the shinobi arts. He knew that most of his teachers hadn't noticed and continued to criticize him, and he too, and continued to write off his improvements until the red head had appeared in his class those months ago. Naruto had seemed to know her extremely well, almost as if the two had been raised together, and after seeing her skills as a shinobi in training it was all becoming extremely clear that she had helped him with the skills that he had gained.

That opened up another troublesome door though: where had she learned her skills? He didn't know any other shinobi in the village who had the same bright red hair as her, but that didn't mean a thing. The red could have only been one of the parent's hair colour, and they could have passed away, which meant he could have been looking for just about anyone. And the last name, Hayashi, it didn't belong to the village, so she could have been a foreigner. But she was scary good at weapons, not to mention the whole flower thing, if she was deemed to be a threat by the Hokage, she wouldn't be learning to be a shinobi at the academy, she would be in jail under interrogation, so that had to mean that the Hokage trusted her. Unless he didn't know the side of her that he had just witnessed….Shikamaru shuddered at the thought and pushed it to the back of his mind. He was the Hokage, he knew everything that happened in the village so that couldn't be a possibility. He had to know.

Shikamaru paused in his thoughts as they reached the doors to the academy, only to be stopped by two shinobis in white porcelain masks who were blocking said doors.

"Uhm, excuse you, but we have to pass through." Naruto stated. "We're going to become genin today, believe it!"

"You and the Nara may pass. But the girl may not." The non-descript shinobi in an owl mask said pointing straight to Kumo.

"What are you talking about?" Kumo asked crossing her arms across her chest

"As you've been informed already, you are not allowed to take the genin exam." The owl mask spoke up again.

"Excuse me?" confusion and anger laced her voice, this time not faked.

Shikamaru stayed quiet as he mentally took note of the conversation that was being held.

"No-one has told her that, I can assure you!" Naruto butted in to the conversation. "I hav-"

"Naruto, please don't make this any harder on her than it already is." Naruto whipped his head back to look at the owner of the voice that just joined the conversation. "From my understanding, Iruka-sensei has already had this conversation with her. She should know better."

Shikamaru allowed his eyes to watch the emotions flash across her face. This time not being schooled as well as he knew that she could. He could see anger, confusion, understanding, despair, desperation flash across her eyes, before she finally answered with a small. "Fine. Whatever." It made a small part of Shikamaru's heart twinge in pain watching the girl go from the strong confident shinobi-to-be that he had just seen an hour ago, to a girl who now seemed as if she had just had her future taken from her.

"Kumo-" Naruto had started, but was cut off by his best friend.

"It's fine Naruto, it's nothing that we won't be able to solve. Now, go take that test and become a genin for the both of us, okay?" her eyes were crinkled upwards imitating a smile, but even Shikamaru could tell that it was false.

"Are you sure?" Unease was plainly visible across Naruto's face.

"Yeah." She sighed stuffing her hands in the pockets of her trench coat. "Go pass that test. Show off what dad and I taught you. I'll be waiting out here for you after the exam, okay?"

Naruto paused for the moment and nodded his head before grabbing Kumo's hand and bringing them close enough so that their shoulders were touching.

Shika had to strain his ears but he heard clearly as the two exchanged a brief dialogue.

"Surely as the eagle flies with the wind."

"Surely as the sun rises in the east," Naruto broke off the semi-hug and walked between the two ANBU shinobi. "I'll meet you here when I'm done!" He shouted over his shoulder launching a peace sign back at his best friend.

Shikamaru groaned and hung his head as he followed the blonde in to the school. Something fishy definitely was going on, and something was telling him that their blue haired teacher had his hands in part of it.

There we are! Let's see what happens next, yeah?