I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 12: Ambushed!

Shikamaru smiled as he recalled the old days. He and Naruto had become great friends over the years, and Shikamaru didn't regret any of it. Shikamaru was thrown from his thoughts as an explosion shook the building. He ran out of the room and toward the source of the explosion. On the way, he met with some of Tsunade's ANBU and led them to the source. When they arrived, they were attacked by a large group of ninja. Shikamaru jumped away to find a clear area, followed by two enemy shinobi. When he made it to the courtyard, he turned to face his attackers.

One was wearing a standard ANBU outfit, with the odd addition of a hood. On his mask, Shikamaru recognized the symbol of the Weed Village, five lines with the outer left and right lines being curved like blades of grass, with all five lines connecting at the bottom. He was nearly six feet tall and appeared to be solid. The other appeared to be a jonin from the Rain Village. He was only about 5'9', and had spiky brown hair. Neither looked to be much of an opponent for Shikamaru. He sighed. No one ever wanted to do things the easy way.

The jonin threw his knives at Shikamaru, who simply knocked them away with his kunai. Shikamaru noticed that in that brief second, the ANBU had disappeared from sight, fading into the shadows. The jonin ran toward Shikamaru, forming hand signs as he prepared to attack. Shikamaru realized that they were the hand signs to perform Water Dragon Jutsu, a now common jutsu in the Rain Village. He finished the signs and a dragon of water rose from a nearby fountain. Shikamaru sighed. He hated dealing with this sort of thing. He jumped onto the dragon and ran on top of it, running the length of it to get to the jonin. Shikamaru was only four feet away when the ANBU reappeared, with what Shikamaru thought must have been a gigantic log growing from his arm. He swung the log toward Shikamaru, who jumped up and threw an exploding kunai into the man's vest. The tag went off, decapitating the ANBU and propelling Shikamaru behind the jonin. Shikamaru unleashed his Shadow Slash Jutsu. A guillotine of shadows rose from the ground, slicing the jonin in half. The two halves fell to the ground. Shikamaru yawned. He had expected more of a fight.

The kages had all met in the conference room, and their ANBU were reinforcing their position.

"We need more troops!" cried the Raikage.

"We don't have them! We'll have to hold our position until help arrives!" replied Tsunade.

"Where's Naruto?" asked Gaara.

"I don't know. He left his room after Shikamaru," said Tsunade.

"Temari, go find Shikamaru. Once you do, see if you can find Naruto. We need his help."

Temari nodded and followed Gaara's orders. She ran out of the room in search for Shikamaru.

Naruto stood on top of the summit building, his kunai aflame with the Nine-Tails chakra. It seemed more like a flaming sword with his power enveloping it. Another ninja jumped onto the roof, prepared to strike Naruto, but he flicked his sword and the man joined the other fifty already dead around him. Despite the workout, he wasn't even panting. None of the ninja appeared to be a real test, but then he felt something, something dark.

He scanned the horizon, looking for it, and then he found it. Out in the distance, a dark, sinister energy was gathering. This could not be good.

"Naruto!" said a familiar voice. Naruto turned to see Shikamaru coming up behind him. Temari soon followed.

"Shikamaru, what's up?"

"What's up? You numbskull! Do you not realize we're being attacked!" Shikamaru glanced at all of the dead bodies. "What have you been doing?"

"Just getting a little exercise."

Temari looked awestruck at Naruto. How on earth did he do all of this?

"The rest of the kages want to see you," said Shikamaru.

"Good. I need to see them, too. Something's out there."

"What do you mean?"

"Something sinister, more evil than Sasuke ever was. I don't know what it is, but it's bad."

"Then we'll let the kages know and they can help you decide what to do."

"Right," said Naruto as they journeyed back down to the conference room.

"Naruto, that's crazy. You're not going alone!" cried Tsunade.

"Fine! I'll take Shikamaru with me!"

"It's still too dangerous!"

"C'mon, Granny!"

"NARUTO NAMIKAZE!" screamed Tsunade at his use of that nickname.

"Sorry, but I still want to go!"

"I'll go with him!" said Bee, who had been listening the entire time.

"No!" said A.

"If I go, we'll have twice the chances for success."

"Or twice the chance for failure!" said Onoki. "If we let the two of you loose on them, we may never even figure out what they want. You saw what Naruto did to the men on the roof. I'd like to at least kill one myself, and have one to interrogate later. Besides, you two numbskulls could very well get yourselves killed."

"We're a bit better than that!" said Naruto.

"I'm fine with it," said the Mizukage.

"I know that I am new to these meetings, but I also think we should let them go," said the Mizuumikage.

"Gaara, what do you think?" asked Tsunade.

"I believe we should let them go. If they did die, then we obviously wouldn't stand a chance anyway."

"Fine!" said Tsunade. "But I still don't like it!"

Naruto and Bee only grinned. Shikamaru cried on Temari's shoulder.

Okay, here's chapter 12. I hope to have 13 up next weekend. I hope you enjoy it. Review please, and dont forget to shoot me a review or message about whether Naruto should marry Sakura or not. See ya!