She gripped and pulled him to her, continuing to make out with him as a faint voice echoed.
"Shikamaru" It said irritated.
He paid more attention to the image before him as the dirty blonde girl-
"SHIKAMARU!" Ino kicked the sleeping man in the gut.
I jolted up, almost moaning but stopped when he noticed his company. "Oh, not the blonde I expected. What's going on?" He said sleepily.
The were in a field, so Ino assumed the man fell asleep during his famed cloud watching. "How the hell can you sleep out here- Wait! Were you dreaming of Temari?" She said almost with a squeal.
Amazingly, his face betrayed no emotion as he simply laid back down. She pulled him up again. "You're such a drag. What's up?"
Ino took a moment to cool down to remember why she was here. "Well, I ran into Naruto. . ."
He sighed. "Did our two Leaf blondes have a moment or did he piss you off with some prank?" He said sarcastically. Fortunately, he ducked a swiping fist.
"NOT LIKE THAT, ASS!" She cooled down. "He was depressed, and I mean REALLY depressed. Honestly, I'm a little worried about him."
Shikamaru looked at her a little more seriously, but still tired. "He tell you what's wrong? Also, shouldn't you be going to Sakura instead? She's your gossip girl."
Ino laughed nervously a bit. "Well, I couldn't find her. . ." Shikamaru face palmed. "And he wouldn't be specific, but mentioned he wouldn't be around at all tomorrow. Also said he would come home to his home being vandalized."
Shikamaru looked at her a moment. The pause went for about thirty seconds as he looked at the clouds. "I'll go get Choji and we'll talk to him. You keep searching for Sakura, though if you find anyone else, tell em about it."
"And if he's already gone off somewhere?" Ino said concerned.
"We'll find him tomorrow. I think I know where he'll be hiding."
He walked off, leaving Ino slightly confused.
(That night)
"What are you doing? . . ." Shikamaru's voice startles the blonde knucklehead, who almost falls over the dead fall drop.
"WHA- What the hell! Don't sneak up on me!" Naruto yelled before seeing Choji with Shikamaru. "What's up?"
They sat with him, Choji carrying a bag. "What are you doing up here?" Choji asked. This only prompted Naruto to grimace and turn from them.
They were sitting atop the Hokage stone faces. Particularly, Naruto was sitting, hidden from the village's view behind the Fourth's spiky hair. Choji had to admit Naruto had a comfy setup with a blanket down to sleep on.
"How'd ya' find me?" Naruto asked, his voice dull.
"Well, since you told Ino you wouldn't be around tomorrow, we checked Ichiraku for you. We thought you would be stocking up on food or comething." Shikamaru stated. Choji finished.
"But since they told us you never come around for these days every year, our list of places you could be came down to one of the training fields or up here." The overweight man opened the bag pulling out Ramen takeout. "Here, brought ya this."
Naruto chuckled humorlessly. "Yet the ANBU could never find me after my pranks as a kid. You ever think they're useless?"
"What's going on? Shouldn't you be getting ready for some celebrations tomorrow?" Choji asked.
Naruto looked over the village, then to the moon. "Nope. I already finished everything." Choji looked down, finding two bouquets of flowers.
"Ino said you bought four. Who did you give the other two to?"
He didn't get any response as Naruto stayed there, silent. Shikamaru sighed, mentally noting he didn't think it was this bad. He began. "The first was for the Fourth, and the second was for the Third. Am I right?"
Naruto just nodded. Choji seemed confused, before connecting the dots. The first two sets of flowers.
Naruto finally started talking. "Why don't you two just go home? I'm sure you have things to do."
Shikamaru sighed again, while Choji seemed to grow more curious, though he was sure Shikamaru would explain it all to him after. "You remember our times at the academy?" Shikamaru said.
Both Naruto and Choji sat and listened as he continued, though Naruto had his back to them.
"You, Choji, Kiba, and I were the misfits. We would cause trouble all over the place. Kiba for rough housing. Choji for joining in for no reason. Me for being lazy. You for. . . well everything." He paused to gauge Naruto's reaction. "We spent a good deal of time around you, as much as we could, so whenever you're down like this, it affects us too."
Choji smirked and grunted a mhm. Shikamaru continued after a bit. "You need to let this go. Come on Choji."
Choji was confused, but followed after noticing Naruto tense slightly. They walked away, leaving the food back with Naruto.
A few minutes of walking later, Choji started his line of questions. "What was that about?"
"You'll need to start somewhere specific."
"The flowers?!"
"For the man who inspired tomorrow's celebration and is Naruto's hero, and then the man who was almost a grandfather to him. If the Third didn't make that law about not telling us about the Fox, Naruto would never have any of us around for him, so obviously the two of them are first on the list for Naruto to be sad over."
Choji shrunk a bit. "Oh. Guess I didn't think of it that way. We aren't that shallow, are we? We wouldn't have abandoned him if we knew about the Fox back then."
Shikamaru ponders that a moment. "Maybe. We would be influenced by our parents."
The walked more before Choji fired the next question. "Who do you think the other two are for?"
"His parents." Shikamaru stated, not missing a beat. "At least I would assume. He keeps them so it would make sense, seeing as he doesn't know who either are."
"Ah. . . and what was up with that last bit there?"
Shikamaru seemed to pause on that. "He's blaming himself for everything."
"What? Why?"
"Think about it. His birthday is the celebration of the thing inside of him killing god knows how many people in the village, but also his hero. Half the village still looks at him with malice, though at least it's better these days." Shikamaru stopped a moment. "Although I'm more concerned about the few that apparently assault his property."
"Huh? I don't remember seeing it get banged up in the last few years."
"Yeah, because he hasn't been here. I think I'll speak with the Lady Hokage in the morning about it."
Choji grunted. "You think he'll be okay?"
"We said our peace. Now, we need the others to as well. Ino's looking for Sakura and possibly Sai, so if you could go tell Team Kurenai, they could help too." With that, they split up to walk separate ways.