!*!*! PAY ATTENTION... LET OP... POORAMA TAHELEPANU !*!*!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I wrote Naruto, he probably would have cracked and attacked the village, eaten some people, too. Ahh, cannibalism. Right... Let's get on with the story.
Shikamaru was woken up rather rudely the next morning.
"What the hell are you doing?" a cold voice asked rudely.
Shikamaru opened his eyes and blinked blearily, trying to get his surroundings in order. Sasuke was standing over him, arms crossed, and glaring ferociously. Shikamaru glared back, albeit lazily. This was not the most pleasant way to wake up. He didn't answer and instead focused on whatever was pressing down on his shoulder.
It was Naruto. She was asleep, head resting on his shoulder, and, sometime during the night, his arm had wrapped around her. She nuzzled against him in her sleep. Now, this wouldn't actually be a bad way to wake up, if the Uchiha had been bugging someone else. Even though he knew that glares couldn't kill, the Uchiha's came as close as one could. Finally he answered Sasuke's question. "Well, I was sleeping before you woke me up, and now I seem to be laying here," he drawled.
"You know that's not what I mean, Nara," Sasuke gritted out, clenching his fists.
Naruto conveniently chose this time to wake up.
She snuggled in closer to Shikamaru, and then frowned, using her hand to pat and feel what she was laying on, as if she was trying to figure it out, and it happened to be Shikamaru. Naruto opened her eyes and blinked sleepily before finding herself nose-to-nose with Shikamaru. And, instead of the look of shock or yell that he had been expecting, she merely said, "Ah… Er, morning," in a slightly awkward voice, a faint dusting of pink spreading across her cheeks.
Then she sat up and stretched cutely, arching her back and stretching her arms over her head, giving each of the males a rather nice view. After stretching, she looked up at Sasuke, "What's up?"
"What's up? What's up? Dobe, why is Shikamaru in your sleeping bag?"
"Duh," Naruto said, as if it was obvious, which it was to her, "You wouldn't let Shika have your bag, so I let him in mine. It wasn't fair to let him sleep on the cold, hard ground."
The fact that the ground wasn't that bad, being covered by a layer of springy grass, and that it hadn't been that cold either sprang into Shikamaru's mind, but he kept quiet. It was amusing to watch Naruto be completely oblivious to the real source of the Uchiha's annoyance.
"I don't get why you're freaking out about, Teme. We're both g-guys, and when I become Hokage I'll need to be able to take care of the people in my village, so why not start now? Besides, I wouldn't have had to share a sleeping bag if you had given him yours," Naruto said in a completely matter of fact voice.
Shikamaru hid a grin under a yawn as he got up. Naruto had essentially, but without meaning to, blamed the whole situation on Sasuke. If only Sasuke knew that Naruto wasn't really a guy. Sasuke would probably be trying to stab Shikamaru with a few shuriken and then ram a Chidori through his chest. It was weird. Naruto, now, seemed to be one of the few people that the Uchiha cared about, which meant that he was very protective of Naruto and jealous of anyone who tried to come close.
Shikamaru looked at the Uchiha closely as Naruto told him to stop being a Teme and shoved the sleeping bag in his arms.
It could be possible that the Uchiha saw Naruto as more than just his best friend, but didn't he think that Naruto was a guy? That would mean that he was… Well, it was possible. As far as he knew, the Uchiha had never shown any interest in the members of his fan club. Shikamaru shuddered slightly. Fan girls were a scary race.
Naruto's face appeared in front of him and he switched his train of thought to the present. "I'm hungry… and I don't want to die of food poisoning, so that means that Sasuke can't cook breakfast," she said, and the unasked question hung in the air.
"You want me to cook breakfast? Why don't you?" She pouted, and groaned, "I'm so hungry that I can't function right now… Must have food… please…"
If her glazed eyes were any indication, she was telling the truth.
Shikamaru knew that having the Kyuubi in her made her have an extremely fast metabolism, and she had barely eaten the day before.
With a sigh, nodded his head once. "Troublesome…"
"Thank you!" she yelled, although at half her usual volume and then proceeded collapse onto the grass and close her eyes.
Lazily, he slouched towards the packs of food and fire that the Uchiha had set up. Fifteen minutes later, Shikamaru raised his head from plates of food he had just set out, and called, "Food's done."
In a flash, Naruto was next to him. "Thank you!" she said, grabbing a plate and taking a bite. He watched as her face went from a cheerful, if slightly ravenous, smile, to a thoughtful look, to an expression of horror.
Shikamaru flushed slightly as Sasuke smirked. Being a genius with the highest I.Q in the village did not translate into good cooking skills.
Naruto clapped him on the shoulder, and said solemnly, "Thank you for trying."
That alone told him how bad the food was. To his surprise, over the next minute, she ate all of the food he cooked and put on her plate, and had a second helping, much to his surprise, and Sasuke's obvious annoyance. For some reason, it felt as though he and the Uchiha were fighting. But over what? He had an idea, but didn't want to think about it. It was too troublesome.
A few minutes later, everything was packed up, and they were walking again, Sasuke in front, and Naruto and Shikamaru behind him, walking closely.
Using the earring that Naruto had given him the day before, which was actually surprisingly easy, Shikamaru asked, "Naruto, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
It was something that had been bothering him since they had been in the Hokage's office. "When you were… interacting with Kakashi… Where did you learn to act like that?"
Naruto burst out into laughter aloud, and Sasuke glanced back at them suspiciously.
"Oh… Well, about that. Well, while I was learning how to be a ninja when everyone I was a boy, Kyuubi-chan thought that I should learn what a kunoichi should learn, too. How to seduce and flower arranging and stuff like that, for when I finally told people the truth, you know? I learned from her in my mindscape while by body slept. She's actually a good teacher." Her face went blank for a moment, and then she shook her head like a dog, expression annoyed. "She's got a huge ego."
Shikamaru smiled and nodded. He hadn't exactly expected that. So the Kyuubi taught her? She taught her well. He had gained another interesting fact as well. Naruto could talk to the Kyuubi in her mindscape while she was sleeping. That meant that she could learn and practice anything, as long as it wasn't physical.
Naruto's voice, slightly nervous added, "And… I may have learned some things from ero-sennin when I was traveling with him. He made me proof read Icha-Icha. I can never get those images out of my head now. I had to help him with his research, and write some parts of the books." She shuddered.
He stared at her, and tried to piece together what he was hearing. Naruto had written part of Icha-Icha, which meant that he had read what she had written. It was probably the latest volume. His mind went back over it, and his eyes widened. Naruto had written that? Wow. The next question was whether she had actually done any of what she had written. He tried to squash the steamy images that were swirling around his brain with less than moderate success. That settled it. Intelligence was clearly no match against hormones.
What happened next, though, was enough to force it from his thoughts. Four unknown chakra signatures flared to life as their owners burst from the forest on either side of the path the trio was traveling.
They were dressed in standard ninja outfits, black, facemasks, also black, with the only odd thing being their shoes. Instead of a regular shinobi sandal, they looked like rubbery boots.
He started to slide into a defensive posture, ready to fight, but stopped. Naruto hadn't moved at all, and then he realized why. They were supposed to be civilians. They couldn't fight at all, in fact, they should probably do some cowering. Naruto was doing exactly what the mission asked for, and in doing so, leaving herself wide open to attack. Shikamaru relaxed his stance. This meant that their lives were being protected by the Uchiha. Their lives were in his hands, and Naruto was trusting him. Shikamaru had no choice to do that same.
He shot a quick glance at Naruto; her body posture, arms tucked in, shaking, made her looked frightened, but her eyes, while wide, were excited, not scared.
Sasuke lunged forward, kunai grasped tightly in his hand, and moved swiftly, sidestepping one of the ninjas and appearing behind him. The deadly edge of the kunai slid across the unknown ninja's throat, scarlet sprayed into the air, and he collapsed, limp, onto the ground.
Shikamaru tensed as he studied the unknown ninja; they didn't wear any headbands, and their movements were surprisingly smooth and quick.
Sasuke dodged under the enemy ninja's kick and, with a flip of his wrist, the kunai lodged up to the hilt in his chest.
Then, the third ninja changed direction suddenly, leaving his companion to keep Sasuke busy, and raced, footsteps kicking up dust, in Shikamaru and Naruto's direction.
Instinctively, Shikamaru moved in Naruto's direction, to protect her, but a single glance from her stopped him. Her eyes were calm.
"Don't move," she said through their link.
The enemy ninja was right in front of Naruto. Shikamaru could feel fear welling up inside him, fear for Naruto. His heart was thumping loudly in his chest, and the next moment almost happened in slow motion.
The ninja brought down the tanto knife in his hand in a smooth arc, blade glinting. Then, the shinobi's eyes bugged out, dimmed, and he toppled forwards at Naruto's feet, a large hole in his back. Sasuke stood over his corpse. But Shikamaru could see droplets of blood splattering onto the ground in front of Naruto, and the blood didn't belong to the attacker.
His heart gave a painful lurch. This wasn't just troublesome, it was worrisome.
Yeash, sorry this chapter took so long to post. The chapter I actually wrote got really long, so I had to split it into two. So, read this one, and the next chapter will be up shortly. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.
Ja ne,
Rumer
Ice Cold Steel: Okay, I think I fixed the little details that you pointed out. Thanks for that. I'm glad that the last chapter made you smile, and freak your brother out. Freaking out siblings is always a bonus in my eyes. Almost all guys are affected by hot girls, and Shikamaru is included. About the earring, I think it's kind of cool. It was an idea that was bouncing around my head for a little and it made sense to me. And of course Naruto wouldn't realize what she had created. It's Naruto; enough said. So, I impressed you with the idea, huh? *wriggles eyebrows* Anyway, I think Sasuke is both jealous and overprotective, and it's probably going to get worse. Hope you liked this chapter, Ice.
Naarano: I put the telepathic conversation in italics like you asked. Is it easier to read and understand now? I can kind of understand how it would be confusing to tell what was aloud or what was in their heads.
fanficreader71: Glad you liked the last chapter. Hope you like this one.
blucross: That was a nice review. I appreciate it.
Ranma-sama: I highly doubt Naruto is observant enough to understand that both Shikamaru and Sasuke might be interested in her. As for the triangle. If I have my way, it's going to turn into a square, or an octagon or something extremely confusing and hilariously disturbing. Chakra radio earrings are awesome, and, I agree. Naruto does fit well being an idiot savant. Glad you like the story.
InARealPickle: Thanks. And I have no idea how Tsunade would act sober. The idea of a sake-less Tsunade is just weird.
Tray125: Glad you think my story is awesome. I happen to agree with you, but it's always nice to know other people like it. I will try to keep up the god work!
SweetHunniiBunnii: Shikamaru and Naruto are kind of good together, right? I hope you like this chapter, and though I kind of hate to admit it, your username is really cute. I can't believe I wrote that.
Chibi Tsuki Hikari: I freaking love you! I don't know why I don't have more reviews, but I appreciate each one that I get. Overall, I don't think ShikaNaru pairing is that popular. It's all Sasuke and Naruto. Sigh... Anyway, I really liked your review. It was funny and energetic. And, yes, I try to make everyone in character. Thanks for the review and I hope you continue reading.
schnookums: Well, I'm not completely sure whether you were asking me to finish the story or the next chapter by tomorrow, but here's the next chapter. The next one will be up soon, too. My writing is good and the plot is great? I think my ego is growing. And you added me to your favs? Nice. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you for reviewing. It seems like everyone thinks I have the characters, well, in character.