Two and Two, Together

Caught in the middle of a gang attack, what a perfect way to start your morning. After his encounter with the Demons and the Knights, Naruto was hell bent on discovering who the mystery member was. He recognized the two first syllables of one of their names. 'Shika' something. He knows that name, if only he could remember the last little bit. While he was asleep in school, he had heard something that reminded him of it.

"Huh?" responded Lee.

Naruto, now snapping back to consciousness, regained his composure and responded to Lee's question. "What? Oh, nothing."

With that, Naruto got up from his chair and took a step to the row of desks in front of him. He now stood in front of Shikamaru and his best friend Choji.

The blond walked up towards the usually silent teen and asked, "Yo, Shika, where were you-,"

Before he could finish, Shikamaru interrupted Naruto's question with a statement which he said sheepishly, "Please don't call me 'Shika'. My grandmother calls me that."

Chouji had his hand in a bag of chips, searching the bottom for a larger piece. He stopped for a moment and chimed in, looking rather dumbfounded, "I didn't know you had a grandmother?"

Shikamaru smirked and looked at Naruto and then again at Chouji, "Everyone has a grandmother. I didn't know you had a diet trainer."

"But I don't," Choji responded.

Shikamaru smirked again and leaned backwards in his seat. "Hint hint."

Naruto, having enough with their jokes came back into the conversation. "Can you guys chill for a minute, I need to ask Shikamaru something," he paused to inhale. "Anyway, Shika-,"

"Shikamaru," Shikamaru added.

"Shika- Hey! Don't do that asshole, I know how to say it ... anyway, what time do you wake up in the morning?"

"Eh, around five-thirty or so, why," he asked with a frown. The usually unflustered Shikamaru begin to eye Naruto uneasily, trying to uncover the true meaning behind his question. Naruto could feel the uncomfortableness from the way Shikamaru was casting his eyes at him. Why did Shikamaru always have to be so smart? He can average like the rest of them. You know, stupid. Like people their age are supposed to be. "Oh, nothing. Waking up at five thirty seems so troublesome, ya know?"

With that, he headed back to his seat next to Lee. The late bell rang but their teacher, Mr. Guy, was not present. So, the class did what every class does without a teacher. Go crazy. Naruto loved not having teachers, I mean, who didn't? He looked to his right at Lee and saw him looking rather disappointed. Mr. Guy was his favorite teacher and Naruto could never understand how someone could have a favorite teacher. A least favorite, maybe? While waiting for a substitute, Naruto used Lee's phone to text Sakura.

He hated not having a one, it made him feel even more left out then usual. At least Lee had one although it was quite dated. Lee didn't really care about technology, he was more of an old school guy. He'd rather run to meet the person and tell them what he wanted than text them.

Naruto went to the message app and found Sakura's name and begin typing, "mr guy didnt come 2day. we got ah sub. Sooo come over here wit me!"

She responded back pretty fast. "No. jus because ur teacher is not there doesnt mean mine isnt." Naruto smiled a little. A little teacher wouldn't stop him from sneaking in and seeing his Sakura! "Oh yeah? I'll go over there then! Whose class are you in?"

She responded quickly again, if she did have a teacher then why is she quick to text then? She usually took her education pretty seriously. "Ms Anko, p.t."

Ms. Anko? That's not good. "Hell no, Ms Anko is a bitch! She's the reason I got suspended two weeks ago!" It was true. She had caught Naruto trying to sneak into the girls locker room to see Sakura one day after gym. Good thing he told her that he was lost. Of course she didn't believe it one bit but him explaining that he had never been on that side of the school before and got lost along the way helped take the steam off of her top a little. It was a lie, obviously, but it worked.

"Why would u say that? Ur so mean," he read and had a thought. He looked again briefly to see if Mr. Guy arrived. Nope. Lee was out of his seat and doing pushups. Shikamaru and Choji in front of him were talking about some movie and in the distance he saw a paper plane flying through the air and hitting a girl in the back of the head. He looked down at the phone and his fingers started typing again.

"Hey, how come you're replyin so fast back if you're in gym class?"

No response this time.

Naruto returned Lee's phone to him and tried to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, he would have to wait. Shikamaru moved his chair across from Naruto's.

"So you got it?" asked Shikamaru. Naruto's eyes shot open and his started pointing at Shikamaru across from him. "I knew it was you! I absolutely knew it! What are even you doing selling drugs dude," he said with much glee and excitement.

Shikamaru simply stared at Naruto. "Drugs? I was talkin' about 'Call of Halo: Lag Ops'. Did you get it yet?" A game? That's what he meant? Naruto looked down at his desk lost in a sea of cluelessness as to who the next suspect is of his private investigation. "What? Oh nevermind. No I-," he begin to say when Shikamaru interrupted him, his tone serious all of a sudden.

"You really are a jackass aren't you? You can't be that fucking retarded." said Shikamaru with a blatant stare.

Naruto's head shot up, furious with Shikamaru's choice of words. "What? Fuck you, Nara, I'm not the one fighting gang members at six o'clock in the morning." Shikamaru rolled his eyes and put his hands up to face in a way to quiet Naruto down.

"Naruto shh! We can't talk about that here. Meet me at my house. We have something important to talk about," he said. Something important? What did Shikamaru's activities have to do with him? "Like what?"

"You need money, I understand, right? I really don't feel like talking about this right now. Just go to my house after school. Cool?"

Naruto responded with a lazy, 'Yea sure' and looked out of the window. He didn't know what he had gotten himself into. He sat there, lost in thought to himself. About his odd morning, that guy, Shino. The one who tried to sell him weed. His getting jumped and then being literally in the middle of a gang rivalry. His realization that Shikamaru was a member of the Knights. He didn't seem like he would fall into that type of crowd.

He had remembered who Shino was, albeit, slightly. It's not completely impossible to believe that he would be a gang member. He was always quiet and weird. He guessed that with the way the city was going lately, everyone would eventually be forced to join a gang. School sucked, the jobs were leaving and there were enough gangs in this city to join. It was still surreal to him, however. To be out there selling drugs, fighting and possibly killing. Konoha had changed, that's for sure.

What caused it to? It had to be the assassination of the former Mayor, yeah, that had to be the catalyst. It was an assassination. On the steps of city hall, no less. But he still loved this big city, though. It was bright and beautiful from afar. Get too close and you'll see it's dark and ugly. But it was his home. He sat there and thought about his life for forty-five minutes. Then, his concentration was broken when the bell rang.