I don't own Naruto…I know, we all want too….
Chapter 3: Clones?
Naruto blinked. If he just saw Sasuke…does that mean someone faked his death? But why and more importantly, how? To fake a death is one thing and then to produce a fake body as well? Just what exactly was happening? Following Tsunade, Naruto stopped and looked back. Tsunade having superb hearing skills also turned. Naruto didn't look at her.
"What's wrong now?" She said wearily but stern. Naruto looked at her and hated the fact that she always had to act tough.
"If you're going to cry, then do it now." He shot back at her.
"Excuse me?" She said in a menacing tone.
"You heard me, or are you deaf?" Naruto spat back.
"Not that you brat, what are you looking at? A fallen angel or something?" She asked, annoyed at the kid with the attitude standing in front of her. Naruto looked back up. The forest behind the school was thick, with practically every types of tree in that climate growing. There were all different heights as many of them were planted at different times. As well as that, there were tiny shrubs, mostly with berries that covered the undergrowth and sometimes little flowers had the courage to push through all the undergrowth. Naruto hated school, but he had to admit, the school's forest was truly wonderful. He glanced back casually at Tsunade who stood with her arms crossed and her right foot tapping constantly on the ground.
"Young man," She began walking towards him, and that's when Naruto began to run. He didn't turn back to look, though he did hear her yell something. The wind was rushing against his ears that the words did not make sense. Overall, he was a fast runner. He had been doing it all his life. Always running away from someone and that was the life of a rebel. Someone who lived on the streets, such as himself, who really couldn't find a place to actually call 'home'. Purging deeper into the forest, Naruto didn't stop running, though his pace had slowed down due to the thickness of the vegetation. Naruto was constantly looking out for low hanging branches, or hidden tree roots and such. He didn't want himself tripping only to be caught again by Tsunade, whom was sure to pursue him. Actually, he was sure she was pursuing him now. She wasn't the type of officer to let something like this slip by her.
Turning sharply to the left of him, he was hidden behind two gist tree trunks. Looking at them briefly he made a mental note that they were some type of deciduous tree. He looked back the path he had come and realized that he left trail behind him. To an average person walking in the woods, the trail would stay unnoticed, but to that of the police force, the trail was like putting up a flag saying 'I'm here'. Angry with himself, Naruto stripped his shoes off. He was contemplating on whether to also take off his socks, but suddenly realizing that even with his socks on the ground was cold, he left them on.
It was fall, though the air was still warm as well as the surrounding bodies of water; however the land itself began to lose its warmth as Naruto soon found out while creeping through the forest. The soil was damp and moist against the cloth of his socks and he had to stop sometimes to remove some of the mud accumulating on his socks. He was no longer running, but kept his ears on alert. Any rustling of leaves or a snap of a branch made him turn and scan the landscape. The school was no longer visible. The trees did an excellent job on concealing everything from the outside world, including most of the sun's light. Naruto zipped the rest of his jacket in the dark and pursued deeper into the woods.
Typically he wasn't afraid of the woods. He had been in here countless of times to find solitude. The forest was quiet and whenever he needed to clear his thoughts, he would come here. He stopped and leaned against the nearest tree, trying to clear his thoughts now. What really was happening? Was Sasuke dead or not? Of course he didn't was Sasuke to be dead, but he wanted to know the truth. How else could he carry out his investigation? Perhaps both Kakashi and Tsunade were hiding some of the facts from him? Well, he wouldn't be surprised. First of all, he was shocked when they told him all that they did. Perhaps they just gave him some information to shut him up, like most adults did. And what about Shikimaru? What was his problem? Naruto squatted down and bit his nail. This was going to be harder than it already has become. He needed come up with a better plan. Naruto knew some things and they were that the police didn't know everything about Sasuke. His parents only knew so much to give the police some background information. However, he knew much more about him. That was his advantage. He should start at the park, where Sasuke would spend some of his time. He knew that he also had to be extra careful; surely the police might suspect that he had something to do with the murders as he left the scene of the crime and no doubt, they'd be looking for him as well. Going to the park was risky, there weren't as many trees as the forest as well as that, it was only two block from Sasuke's house. Oh well, it was a start.
"Hey." Said a voice dully. Naruto almost yelled out in surprised, but clamped his mouth shut. He just fell over from the shock. He looked up, though only a silhouette was shown because of the lack of light. However, he knew who the voice belonged to.
"Couldn't you know, make some noise before scaring me?" Naruto said sharply. "I told you before, I don't want to work with you, Shikamaru." He said more coolly than he expected.
"Yeah I know, but I think that we'd make a better team than working solo. Besides, I already know that the police will soon be making a move. Don't you want to find the truth before they do?" he asked in the same dull voice. Naruto pondered all this. In the essence of truth, he did, but…that would mean he would have to share his information to Shikamaru and he didn't trust him. Moreover, he didn't trust anyone. He felt safer when he could only depend on himself only. But…there was a chance that if he teamed up with Shikamaru, he could discover the secret faster. A risk, there was always a risk. Naruto looked up at the shadow.
"Fine, but I want you to answer a few questions first." He answered back. Shikamaru also leaned against the tree beside Naruto's. He laughed gently.
"It's to see if I'm on your side?" He asked back. Naruto blinked. This guy was smarter than he thought.
"Yes." Naruto answered back. He figured that he should be honest with him, if he was going to join sides with him. He just hoped that he would return the honesty.
"Fine," He said coolly, "ask away." He crossed his arms and waited.
"How did you find me?" He said. "If you can find me, then they can."
"Ah, I assume that when you say 'they'-" He began.
"I mean the police." He answered.
"Right." Shikamaru said. "Well I doubted that they would find us." He assured. "I found you by scent."
"Scent? What are you a dog?" Naruto demanded. Shikamaru leaned off his tree and turned his back from Naruto. Naruto blinked. This guy was not only smart, but he was weird. Suddenly, a deer was beside him.
"I use them, I have some special connection with them you see and though most people don't know it, they are very good trackers. More importantly, I would like to point out that the police also have dogs, so they could easily get the same result. My suspicion is that they are waiting and watching us to see what we would do. The reason is that we were Sasuke's classmates and we would know stuff about him that his parents wouldn't." Shikamaru explained in the same dullness. Why did he always act like he was bored? However, Naruto never thought about the police using dogs and sine Shikamaru brought that to his attention, he knew that creeping around not making any noise wouldn't make a difference. Shikamaru patted the deer and the deer left them, being swallowed by darkness. He then looked at Naruto.
"You probably had a plan, or a place to go, somewhere where the police haven't been because they don't know. I recommend that we dispose of that plan." He advised.
"Then, what do we do?" Naruto asked. Despite being dark, Naruto could see that Shikamaru's mouth twisted slowly into a smile. A smile that didn't mean happiness, a smile that meant what was coming up would be dangerous. A smile that meant to him, it was going to be a fun game of chess. It was all a race of time and even Naruto knew it.
"What do we do?" Shikamaru repeated, in a voice filled with excitement. "We lead them astray of course and then set a trap for them."
"A trap?" Naruto asked perplexed.
"Yes." Shikamaru replied. He seemed to finally release his real feelings for this investigation. "A trap they will never forget."
Please leave a review, even if you didn't like it! It's good to hear feedback! Thank you for reading and I hope you will continue to read. I'll try to update soon, but before I know it, 'soon' may be in a few months. However, I'll try to finish this story fast. Thanks once again.
-Itachianimefan :P