Chapter 4 Save What You Can

It was 2 more days before Naruto was able to get inside his house. Tsunade had personally seen to it that a building inspector was out there to inspect the damage. It was safe enough to get in and get out his stuff, but the house would eventually have to come down. It turned out that the damage cause by the storm to the rest of the village was minor and his friend were able to come out and help him.

"Thanks you guys. You don't know how much this means to me."

"We're happy to help," grinned Sakura.

"Yeah," agreed Choji, "We owe you big for saving our lives all those times."

Lee nodded, ready to get in there.

"Okay everyone, listen up!" called Kakashi. "We have a green light to go in. The inspector said it's stable enough, but i've seen buildings like this fail fast enough. I only want 4 of you in the house at one time. I want 1 person on look-out while the other 3 grab everything that you can save." He turned to Naruto. "Naruto, it's your house, so you get to be in charge."

He nodded.

"Good. Seeing as we have way more people than we need, I want the rest of you out here clearing the debris left by the tree and helping the neighbors clean up. Lee, Kiba, and Shikamaru, you're with Naruto. Everyone else, pair up and I'll assign you to a house."

"What a drag..." sighed Shikamaru. "Why do I get stuck going into the unstable building..."

Glare from Kakashi.

Shikamaru stifled the rest of his complaint.

General confusion while the others pair up.

"Alrighty then," began Naruto, "Let's get in and out as fast as possible."

Nods of agreement.

"Let's go..."

The house was trashed. A window had be broken in by a piece of flying debris and the wind had blown everything around. Most of his things had been sitting in water or soaked through for so long that it was starting to smell. The promptly through most of it away, knowing that it was beginning to mold and probably beyond saving. Luckily, most of his clothes were still dry, ad bet a little smelly from the stuff that was moldy. His appliances were wrecked, owing to the massive amounts of water that had gotten into the house. His house looked more like it had been flooded than that a tree had fallen on it. End the end, he was only able to save his clothes, a few pictures, and his weapons. All his scrolls and other paper items were pretty much gone. Thankful for the small size of the house and that Naruto didn't have much to begin with, they managed to finishes relatively quickly. In and out in about 2 hours. Not bad, not bad at all.

They packed what they had managed to save outside, grateful for the fresh air and lack of the mold smell. Everyone came back and they had a quick lunch break before going back to the neighborhood clean up.

It was nearly dusk when they finished.

"Good work everyone," congratulated Kakashi. "You all did a good job."

Ragged, tired cheer.

"Okay then, ya'll can leave." Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sakura and Naruto shook their heads. "Same old Kakashi," they muttered in unison, before laughing at the shared thought.

Everybody started to leave; most heading home for some food, a warm bed, and some need sleep. It had been a long day.

The sun was down before Kiba and Naruto managed to get home. They stashed what they had saved in Kiba's shed. He was going to store it until Naruto could find a new place.

"Burrrrrrrr," shivered Naruto as the went inside. "It's freezing out there."

"I know right. I was hoping it would warm up today, but it looks like its going to get even colder. At this rate, we may have snow on the ground soon."

Naruto nodded. "Been awhile since we had a decent amount of snow." The winter before had been very mild. It had snowed a few times, but it hadn't lingered long.

Kiba went to the kitchen. "What do you want for dinner?"

"Huh? I haven't even been thinking of food," he lied unconvincingly, especially since his stomach decided to growl just as he said it.

Kiba shook his head as he open his fridge. "Uh-oh." It was empty accept for a box of bazillion year old baking soda that had been sitting in there since he moved in.

"What?"

Kiba opened a cabinet. Nada. Just a few ancient cans of peas. "Crap..." he muttered as he went from cabinet to cabinet .Kiba sighed. He knew that he needed to go to the store, but had put it of because of the weather.

Naruto blinked in surprise. "What? You're outta food?"

Kiba nodded. He reached into his pocket for his wallet. Almost as empty as his fridge. Not even enough to order a pizza. Damn.

"Order a pizza?"

"Outta money..."

Naruto grabbed his wallet. $20. Not a dime more or less. "I've got enough for pizza. At least I think I do. Enough for me anyway..."

"I got a $10, what you got?"

"I've got $20. That's enough for pizza."

"Yeah." He grabbed the phone and called the pizza place. "What you want on it?"

"Anything but pineapple or anchovies."

"Pepperoni it is..."

Okay we've come to an impass. I have this story going two different directions from here. I have this evolving into a little romance between them, and I have a version that keeps it just friends. The direction I take this depends on ya'll. Review or message me and tell me which version you want; or if you even want it to continue.

-Snow