Chapter Three.
I have nothing to say.
But this is the longest chapter though.
Disclaimer: I don't own the chracters of Naruto and blahblahblah. Mhm.
Chapter Three
Ero-Sennins and Broken Noses
Sakura hit Naruto so hard that she sent him, and Shikamaru, flying in the air. When they hit the ground, dust went flying everywhere.
Sorano went over to Sakura and commented, "Impressive strength."
Sakura looked Sorano over very carefully. "Yeah. Who are you?"
Sorano sighed. She didn't want to have to introduce herself again but she knew she would have to anyway. "I am Sorano of the Sand. I was here on mission with Gaara-san, Kankuro-san, and Temari-niichan. We have not left yet to go back to Sunagakure."
"Oh."
"You are Haruno Sakura, am I right?"
"Yes, I am."
Sorano nodded her head in approval and looked over at Shikamaru and Naruto. Naruto had landed on Shikamaru which made Shikamaru literally steam at this point. But because of his laziness, he only shoved Naruto off of him, stood up, brushed the dust off of him, and walked towards Sakura and Sorano.
"Thanks alot, Sakura," Shikamaru scoffed.
"I didn't know you were gonna get caught in it. I'm sorry," Sakura guiltily said.
"Are you okay, Shikamaru-sama?" Sorano quickly inquired.
As Shikamaru was about to say something, Naruto quickly cut in, "Yes, I'm fine, Sorano-chan. No need to worry."
Sorano stared at Naruto blankly. "That's nice, Naruto-kun." She turned back to Shikamaru. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Shikamaru said, uneffected.
Sorano wondered why he made such a big deal out of everything and then, suddenly, mellowed out.
Then, Jiraiya happily came up the path, whistling a joyful tune, as if nothing had ever happen to Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sakura. He looked at them all, Naruto laying on the ground, limbs sprawled out, Sakura, standing as if she thought Naruto got what he deserved, Shikamaru's lazy pose, and Sorano's innocent and foreign look.
"Ero-sennin! Sakura punched me!" Naruto exclaimed in a whiny voice.
"Stop whining! You got what you had coming to you," Sakura logically explained.
"Stop that!" Jiraiya yelled at the top of his lungs. He turned to Sorano and said, "Who is the beautiful young lady?"
"Ero-sennin!!!! No!! She's our age!" Naruto and Sakura yelled in unison.
Shikamaru's eyes bulged out. Sorano slowly backed away. Jiraiya stood in silence for a moment.
"WHAT?!?!!?!?!" Jiraiya roared. "I'm not into younger girls!!!!" He turned to Sorano and explained, "I'm sorry for their rudeness. What is your name?"
Sorano looked him over and said, "My name is Sorano. I come of Sunagakure here on a mission. My mission invovled Nara Shikamaru-sama and Uzumaki Naruto-kun." She put her hands on their shoulders. "I did not get to meet them seeing as I am a medi-nin and I had to take care the bodies that were left behind."
"Nice to meet you, Sorano. Thank you for helping Konoha in its time of need."
"Your welcome- uhm.. what is your name?"
"I am the toad sage! My name is... Jiraiya!"
"Jiraiya? One of the legendary sannin?" Sorano quickly bowed. "I'm sorry for disrespecting you, Jiraiya-sannin."
Jiraiya smiled at his importance.
"Why would you respect this perv?!?!" Naruto burst out.
Sorano looked at Naruto. "How could you not respect him? You should always respect your elders even if they are the most perverted people in the country," she strongly elucidated. "Plus, he's probably strong enough to take out anyone except Tsunade-sannin."
Jiraiya had a flashback of when he and Naruto had set out to find Tsunade so they could make her Hokage. He thought of the fight with Orochimaru and Tsunade and how she and he almost defeated Orochimaru. But even they, the legendary sannin, could not defeat him.
Jiraiya scolded, "You think I couldn't beat Tsunade?! Why do you think that?!"
Sorano looked down. "I'm sorry. Its just that Tsunade-sannin is my idol. I strive to be like her more and more each day. And one day I will become Kazekage just as she became Hokage."
Shikamaru thought, "Now she's starting to sound like Naruto. God, I hate him. He embarrassed me so much around Sorano. Wait, if she acts like Naruto why can't still I get her off of my mind? I hate those over-confident and prideful people. She sounds almost exactly like Naruto yet she doesn't portray herself to be a prideful brat."
"I don't mean to sound imprudent. Its just that I think that if anyone has a dream, they should be confident about fulfilling that dream," she continued.
Shikamaru continued his thoughts. "And that's exactly why I like her. She's so.. intruiging." He said aloud, "Until you said that, you sounded almost exactly like Naruto with becoming the Hokage."
"Naruto, you want to be Hokage?" Sorano asked, interested.
Everyone turned to look at Naruto. He sat on the path with a finger in his nose. Just then, Hinata came skipping down the path. She had not been looking down at her feet, and, well, she ran right into Naruto.
"AOWWW!!!!!!!!!" Naruto bellowed.
Everyone except for Hinata and Naruto laughed the hardest that they could. When Hinata ran into Naruto, his finger went all the way up into his nostril. His nose was bleeding yet, Naruto could not get his finger out of his most-likely broken nose.
"I-I-I'm sorry, Naruto-kun," Hinata pleaded softly. "I didn't, I mean, I wasn't, I mean.. I didn't see you there. I'm sorry."
Naruto gave Hinata a scolding look. "Hinata." He looked at her trembling and started to let up his look up.
Sorano was the first to try to stop laughing. "Naruto-kun, it seems that your nose is broken. I am sorry that you have to go through this humiliation and pain," she said, suppressing a laugh.
"M-my nose is broken?!?" Naruto interrogated.
"Well, it looks that way. We don't have to put you through any more humilia-" Sorano was cut off by Shikamaru covering her mouth.
"Can I talk to you?" Shikamaru queried.
"M-mhm.." Sorano hesitated.
Sorano and Shikamaru went to the other side of the path while Hinata was apologizing, once again, to Naruto for breaking his nose.
"Were you gonna say that you could bandage him up right here?" Shikamaru asked, mischievously.
"Well, yes, but-" Sorano was cut off.
"Well, what I was thinking was that we could make him go to the hostpital anyway and of course he's gonna have to walk through town with his finger in his nose and it would be the perfect revenge!" Shikamaru interpreted enthusiastically.
Sorano was surprised at his vengeful enthusiasm. "But isn't that kinda mean?"
"But he's mean to me.."
"I'm sure he doesn't mean it."
"You don't know Naruto."
"Apparently neither do you."
Sorano and Shikamaru glared each other in the eyes. They weren't giving up on their opinions. Sorano bunched her fists up. Shikamaru resisted the want to slap her. Although he tried his hardest, his resistance did not work. His hand rose to her face, it pulled back, and there was a loud smack. Sorano's head went to the left. There was complete silence. She turned her head to look at him with tears in her eyes. She put her hand to soothe the sting on her cheek.
"I-" Shikamaru started.
"Save it, Shikamaru-sama. I see I've caused much trouble here. I'll leave immediately," Sorano said and turned and walked away from Shikamaru. As she walked, the tears started flowing from her cheeks. "I thought he was good. I guess I thought wrong. But.. he was so nice. How can he be like that? I-I loved him. No, I love him."
Sorano stopped for a second. She slightly turned her head to look back at Shikamaru. When she realized he wasn't there where he was standing before, she turned around to look completely down the path. She looked to the right of her and saw Jiraiya, Sakura, Hinata, and Naruto staring at her. She looked to the front of her and saw Shikamaru about six centimeters away from her. He put his hands to her face, held her head in his hands, and wiped the tears from her eyes. He put his forehead to hers and quietly said, "I'm sorry, Sorano."
Sorano didn't know what to say. He was so unpredictable. She was so hurt by his reaction to their bickering, yet touched by the way he apologized for his mistake.
"Sorano," he whispered as he closed his eyes. "Please stay with me. I will never ever hurt you, in any way, again. I swear on my life."
Sorano pulled away from his warm hands and held them tightly. Shikamaru opened his eyes to look at her. She gazed deeply into them. "Shikamaru, I want to tell you something."
"Yes, Sorano?" he sqeezed her hand lightly.
"I love you, Shikamaru-sama."