Chapter 2: Flashback

Naruto, Shikamaru and Sai arrived at their destination in the evening. The sun had just set when they arrived at the entrance of the village. Immediately they knew something was up. There were no women in the village. None whatsoever. Not even children. The man who called for their help took the group into a building and gave them a proper greeting. The man had scars on his shoulder and one on his chin. He had a reseeding hairline and tanned skin from working in the sun all day. He started to explain what he wanted from them, but he was vague.

"So what is it exactly that you want us to do?" asked Shikamaru.

"There's a competition going on right now and we need people to participate. You may have noticed that there are no women in this village."

Naruto looked around. "Yeah, I was wondering about that."

"They're the prize," said the man. "Our women were taken from us and are being held hostage by a group of men just on the edge of the village. We have to compete to get them back."

"That doesn't make any sense," Naruto said, confused. "Why?"

"These men feel that the women cannot be properly taken care of by us. They said they want to see if we are capable of protecting our own. If we can compete and win, we get our women back. If not, they keep them. Mothers, daughters, wives... they're all gone. We have to get them back but no one in this village is strong enough to do it. The tasks they have us doing are very hard. So fair no one has been able to come close. That's where you come in."

"I see," said Sai. "Because you lack the ability to win, you've hired people who can."

"Exactly. You'll be competing in our stead. Since these people don't know everyone in the village, it'll be easy. You'll just have to masquerade as locals and compete."

"That sounds easy." Naruto didn't see a downside.

"The issue is..." said the man. "... that ninja aren't allowed to compete because it would be considered cheating. They'll know if you're using ninja skills. Those aren't allowed."

There was the downside.

"Then what the hell are we doing here if ninja can't compete? That doesn't make any sense at all!" Naruto yelled.

"You just can't use any ninja skills, that's all!" the man begged. "As long as they don't find out you're ninja it'll be ok. Please, you have to help! We'll never see those women again if we don't win. Please!"

The trio looked at each other.

"Well..." Shikamaru spoke first. "It'll be a challenge... but we'll do it."

"Say what?" Naruto couldn't believe it.

"All we have to do is what the man said. As long as we don't use any ninja techniques they'll never know we're ninja. Simple."

"But we are ninja," Naruto complained. "How are we supposed to do this? It's crazy. They hired ninja to not be ninja? How does that make any sense?"

"Ninja go undercover all the time on missions. This is no different," Shikamaru said.

"How are we not supposed to use them? I mean, they hired ninja because they need our skills and now we're being told we can't use them. Our skills give us an edge. Isn't that why we were hired?"

"True... but ninja are trained from a young age. In fact, we learn certain skills before learning Jutsu," said Sai. "How to build up our strength, stamina and speed. This will be a challenge, but it shouldn't be too difficult."

"He's right. We have to pretend we're not ninja," said Shikamaru. "We'll do things with our own strength and used what we've learned."

This was a headache. Naruto couldn't wrap his head around the very idea. "Ok, ok... So how do we do this?"

Shikamaru removed his Chunin jacket and headband and set them on the floor. "First, we get rid of these." He held out his hand. "Naruto, your headband."

"What? Why?"

"They'll know we're ninja if we're wearing a ninja headband. It's a dead giveaway right there."

Reluctantly, Naruto removed his headband and set it down. Sai did the same. They removed all of their weapons as well. Even the hidden ones, just in case they were discovered. Plus, that way there would be no temptation. They looked each other over, making sure there was nothing about them that set them part from normal villagers.

"Alright," Shikamaru spoke again. "Now that we look the part, we have to act the part. It's like he said. No ninja arts. Which means... absolutely no Jutsu. Of any kind." His eyes rolled to Naruto. "This means no Shadow Clones."

"I got it."

"And no Ras-"

"I know, I get it. Why are you looking at me? Sai's here, too."

"Yes, but you're the one who uses Shadow Clones for everything. You use them on a whim, so much so that it's something you do without thinking about it. I want to drill it into you that you cannot use them at all."

Naruto frowned. "Hey, I've seen you use the shadow thing when you were too lazy to get up and reach something."

"I know better for this and it was one time. You can't use it, got it?"

"I got it. I promise, no Shadow Clones."

"Good. Other skills we cannot use are the wall-climbing techniques we've learned and walking on water."

"What about Taijutsu?"

Shikamaru thought about it. "It's martial arts... it may be too closely linked to skills used by ninja. I say if you have to use it, only the very basics. Things most people would be able to use. Punching and kicking. That sort of thing. But nothing major. Definitely no Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. We can't use anything that would give us away. It'll be like using what we could do before the academy. Is everyone clear on this?"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

The next morning, they would enter the competition to win back the village women and they would have to do it while pretending to be average villagers. Their clothes and weapons would give them away so they couldn't carry them. Using any ninja arts were forbidden. Basically they were asked to fight with their limbs tied behind their backs. This wasn't going to be easy.

The next morning, Shikamaru went over the plan again, making sure everyone knew they couldn't use any Jutsu or any other ninja skills. After that, a few of the locals including the scarred man who hired them, took them to where the competition would be taking place. There was a lake just outside the village and on the other side was a large tower. According to the locals, it used to be an old bell tower but it hadn't been used in decades. The bell itself was long gone. Some of the local children used it as a hide out when they played but their parents didn't want them anywhere near it because it was supposed to be dangerous. It was old so it must have had rotten wood and loose floorboards, but it was also very tall. Falling from the very top would either cause serious injury to an adult and most likely death in a small child. As Naruto got closer to the building he realized that death was more likely to happen to someone who fell off the tower. It was even taller up close.

From the very top of the tower, a man appeared. He didn't look like a bandit or anyone fitting the description of the average terrorist. He looked like a normal villager. Other men showed up, all dressed similarly to the first. They didn't look like the type of people who would normally pull this sort of stunt.

"Who's playing today?" asked the first man. "You need at least three."

The scarred man gestured to Naruto, Shikamaru and Sai. "These three. They're our best and have worked hard to get here today. They'll do it. They'll win."

"You said that about your last two groups. We'll see how well they do. If they win, you may have your women back. If not, we keep them."

Naruto whispered to Shikamaru. "I don't get why we don't just go in there and beat the crap out of them and rescue the girls."

"That isn't what we were hired to do. Besides, hostage situations are very complex. Notice how we can't see the women? If we go charging in there, those guys might end up killing the girls before we can get to them. Plus there's no way of knowing if they're actually in there. If we go in and start fighting, it could all be for nothing and we could end up starting something else. They could go after the men in the village for calling for help. Just stick to the plan, ok?"

"Yeah, fine."

The man in the tower spoke loudly so everyone could hear. "You'll have three tasks and you must pass each and every one of them. Your first task will begin over there." He pointed to the other side of the lake. "You'll fight one of our strongest. Each of you will."

Naruto was happy about this. It was a spar. It was no different from his fights with Lee. This should be easy.

Nothing was ever easy. Once they got to the other side of the lake, they realized it was a sword fight against a very large man with a shaved head. Naruto didn't know how to use a sword. That never stopped him before. He'd win for sure.

Sai went first. The goal was only to win, not to kill the other person. He was just supposed to disarm him. The man was wearing light armor and Sai had nothing. Still, when his combat training kicked in, he was able to overpower his opponent. Shikamaru went second. It took him a little longer, but he was also able to disarm the man and won the match.

Now it was Naruto's turn. In the back of his mind, he wondered if he could use Jutsu discretely. It was too big a risk. Someone might see. These men must have been trained to spot ninja arts so using one, even if it was well hidden, was taking too big a chance. He had to do this on his own.

As he swung the sword given to him, it bounced off the man's blade and back at him. His opponent's sword swept through the air and Naruto had to bend backwards to avoid the tip. Once he found his footing, he knew he could win. He swung, pushing hard against the man's sword with his. At this point, he was only holding the sword. He wasn't using it. He was using his own strength to push the man back. He didn't need to know how to use a sword, he just had to disarm this guy. He treated the sword like a kunai and wedged it between the other sword's hilt and pushed upward. The sword flew out of the man's hand and Naruto pointed his blade to the man's throat, winning the match.

That was easy enough. They didn't need to use their ninja skills. This was going to be a cakewalk.

"Your next task begins over there at the lake," said the man. "I've left an object underwater and you must retrieve it."

"Under the water?" Naruto scoffed. "That's easy. We can dive under there no problem."

The man continued. "There are beasts under the water you have to avoid."

"What kind of beasts?"

"Gators. In fact, one of them has an object I want you to get for me. It's up to you to find out which one. And I'm not going to tell you what the object is. Good luck."

The trio looked at each other. This was an event where their ninja arts would come in handy. If they were under water maybe they could use that as a cover and use their skills without anyone seeing. Shikamaru discouraged this, even though he was tempted to do it himself. There were too many people watching them. The men in the tower, the ones by the lake and the one on the boat floating on the surface of the water. It was too big a risk. They had to stick to the plan.

"There's an object we have to find. Should we all go in to look for it at the same time and split up? Or should we each go in one at a time?"

"It doesn't matter," said one of the men on the shore. "As long as you're all in the water. You have ten minutes, by the way so I suggest you start."

Time was wasting. They took off their shirts and dove into the water. The water looked pretty clear on the surface but the deeper they swam the more murky it became. So far, there weren't any animals under the water. Not even fish.

Something brushed against Naruto's leg and he spun around. It was a branch. When he looked back he saw Sai riding on an alligator's head, keeping its mouth clamped shut with his arms. Naruto swam over to help. Another one was on its way. Naruto avoided its jaws but the tail slammed into his back, forcing some air out of his lungs on contact. It swam back, mouth agape. It was wearing an anklet on its front leg. Was that the object they were supposed to find? A third arrived attacking Naruto from behind. It tore off a piece of his pants, missing his flesh. This one was wearing a collar around its neck. Was that it? Was that the object?

The one Sai was trying to subdue bumped into Naruto, forcing out more air. He turned around and punched the gator on the nose. The water slowed his movements. It wasn't enough to hurt the gator very much. Just annoy it. The anklet gator swam beside Naruto and opened its mouth. Shikamaru slammed into it from the side, making it miss its target. Another one slammed into Shikamaru. Naruto could see the bubbles leave his mouth. They needed to surface for air soon.

Naruto decided to go first. That way he could come back and help distract the gators while they went to get air. He swam up towards daylight. He broke the surface and took in a deep breath. Something brushed against his leg. It was heavy. Then a sharp pain in his leg and was suddenly dragged down. He held his breath. The collared gator had a hold of his right leg just above the ankle. It started to roll. Naruto rolled with it, trying not to scream out in pain and lose the air he had just breathed in. Pinching his nose shut with one hand, he grabbed onto the collar and held on. Shkamaru came to help him and tried to pry the gator's mouth open with his hands. It was pointless. The gator's jaws were too strong. Sai swam over to help. Even together, they didn't have even strength to open its mouth. Shikamaru pointed down and they swam under the gator's belly. The next thing Naruto knew, he and the gator were heading for the surface.

As soon as he felt the air on his face, Naruto let out the scream he had been holding in. "Get it off me! Get it off!"

Shikamaru and Sai shoved the gator onto the bank and worked frantically to get its mouth off Naruto's leg. "Get me that stick!" Shikamaru wedged a stick between its jaws. It wasn't enough to pry its jaws open, but that wasn't what he was trying to do. "Another! Quick!"

Naruto beat the ground with his fist. "Hurry up! It hurts!"

"Hang on. Just a second."

Naruto felt the teeth slowly lift off his leg and he quickly pulled it out. When he looked back, he saw the gator's mouth filled with sticks. They had wedged in just enough to make it loosen its grip but it was still biting down. Naruto looked at his leg. It wasn't too bad given the circumstances. There were four teeth marks in his leg and he was bleeding. Sai handed him a cloth and told him to bind his leg.

"It's not too bad. Maybe you'll need stitches but it's too soon to tell." Shikamaru looked around. "Is there a medic?"

One of the men from the sidelines came over and looked at the leg before it was bandaged up. "It's not bad. He won't need stitches. He's fine."

Naruto wrapped up his leg with the cloth and tied it off. He knew this was nothing to worry about. He was a fast healer. By the time they got him treatment, the wound would probably be little more than a few scratches. He gave his leg a test, bending it and straightening it. He applied pressure on it and stood up. "I'm ok. No problem." He walked around with barely a limp.

"Are you good for the final challenge?" asked the man who had come over.

"We're this close to finishing. We might as well see it through," said Sai. "As long as Naruto can endure."

"Wait a minute," said Naruto. "We're not done with this challenge, are we?" Everyone was so busy trying to free his leg that no one found the object they were supposed to bring back. Have they?

Shikamaru held up both the collar and the anklet. "We brought back all of them just in case."

The man pointed. "The anklet."

"Yes!" Naruto cheered. "That means we did it. We won another challenge. Bring on the next!"

They were given their final task.

"It's a race across the lake. There will be many obstacle in your path. At least two of you must finish. The more the better. Your race will take place on those small rafts you see on the bank. One to a raft."

Sai looked at the small rafts. There were tubs bigger than these and they had less holes. Each raft was different. Some were in better shape than others. One looked like a large board of wood, another looked like a bunch of logs tied together and the last one looked like a large wooden bucket someone would wash their dog in or do their laundry. None of these looked ready to sail to anything but the bottom of the lake. Then Sai noticed something else. "Where's the ore?"

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "How do we paddle these things without ores?"

"There be your challenge," answered the man. "Oh, and this is a race. You know what that means, right?"

"That we'll be timed," answered Shikamaru. "Based on what, though? What is the time frame we'll be racing against?"

The man pointed to the tower on the other side of the lake. There was a woman balanced on the roof of the old tower, her arms tired behind her back. "You're racing to catch her before she falls. So I suggest you start moving."

"You're putting her life in danger? Are you insane? She's innocent!"

"We're challenging you to see if you're capable of protecting your own. If you can't save that woman from falling then you don't deserve to protect anybody. Mainly because it proves you can't."

Naruto was getting ready to take a swing at him but Shikamaru held out his arm. "We don't have time," he said. "The race has already started and we're killing time as it is. We have to hurry. Beat him up later."

He was right. That woman came first. They had to race to the other side to save her. They each ran to a different raft and got on. Naruto was on the one that resembled a large board, Shikamaru the logs and Sai was in the wooden tub. Sai had the sense to grab one of the sticks they had used to open the gator's mouth and use it as an ore. Shikamaru had done the same. But Naruto was already on the water, paddling with his arms and legs. When he looked back he saw the shore still in his sights. They were going so slow!

"Hell, I can swim there faster than this."

"Ah-ah!" A man waved his hand it the air. "You must cross with your raft. If you are not on your raft or at least touching it with a part of your body, it doesn't count and you'll automatically lose the challenge."

"That's a load of-"

"Naruto! Paddle!"

This was no time to throw a fit. He had to get there as fast as he could. "So I have to be touching the raft, right? No problem." Naruto jumped into the water while holding onto the raft with his hands and started kicking his legs. Having his injured leg in the water did irritate the wound but he worked through the pain. So far so good. He was moving quickly across the water now.

Then he felt something brush against his leg again.

"Oh, not this again." Naruto climbed onto the raft as a gator snapped at his feet. "Right. There are gators in the water. I forgot."

"How could you forget?" asked Sai. "We just finished prying one off your leg not two minutes ago."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at him. Then he sat and wondered how he could do this. He couldn't go in the water or the gators would get him and he didn't have a paddle or anything to row with. He was wasting too much time thinking about it. He had to act. Naruto started paddling with his arms, pushing his raft forward.

Shikamaru's arms were aching and they were only halfway across the lake. This was hard work! He looked up at the tower. The girl was still teetering on the edge of the roof. They had to get there fast before she fell. A fall from that height with her arms tied behind her back would probably kill her. He prayed they made it in time.

Sai paddled as fast as he could. So far he was in the lead. Then his stick caught on something underwater and his tub stopped. CRACK! He pulled his severed stick out of the water, now no longer than a paintbrush. The gator brushed against the side of his raft and slipped back under the water.

"Sai!" Shikamaru passed him his stick. With Sai in the lead, it made more sense for him to keep going and let the slower ones catch up. Sai took the stick and pulled his way across the water as fast as he could.

CRACK! Naruto's raft was bitten in half by a hungry gator. He just managed to back away in time as it took out a chunk from the front of his raft. Naruto balanced on his severed half looking left and right. There was a piece of his broken raft floating on the water a little ways away from him. He snatched it up and stroked his way back into the race. Now he was moving even slower!

The woman screamed, toes hanging off the edge of the building. There wasn't much time left.

SNAP! Sai's borrowed stick snapped again. It was still workable. Only the end was taken off. He continued to paddle but with the other stick. A rock bounced off his shoulder and he turned around. Men were throwing things from the shore at him. They said there would be obstacles. Sai tried to ignore them and paddled harder. Then his raft started tipping. His feet were wet. He looked down. There were more holes in the bottom of his tub. He was sinking. Not only that but the gator bumping into him was causing the tub to tip to one side. More rocks pelted him, making it even harder to keep his balance. Then he saw the gator's mouth. The tub was torn to bits and Sai was knocked into the water.

"If you grab a piece of the wood it still counts as the raft. You can just swim to the finish line," Naruto yelled out to him.

"No," called one of the men. "Because he let go of the raft went he fell in and his raft is gone. Your friend's out of the race."

Shikamaru was stuck. He had no way to paddle and now that Sai was in the water unprotected he was worried Sai would end up gator food. Sai started swimming towards him with the stick in hand, trying to pass it to him.

Naruto paddled like crazy toward the shore. He was almost there. Just a few more yards and he would be there. He paddled with both arms, hunching over on his tiny raft, the broken piece in his lap. It was actually faster this way. This time when he looked up, he saw a man reach for the young woman as she balanced on the edge of the roof. It looked like he was trying to grab her to pulled her back. Startled by his hand, she suddenly lurched forward and over the edge.

"No!"

She screamed, falling head first toward the ground.

He would never make it in time. The shore was too far away, even though now he was the closest to the bank. She was going to fall to her death. He had no choice.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

With that his promised was broken along with their cover.

Two clones emerged and grabbed his arms. They flung him forward toward the shore with all their might. Naruto touched land once as he jumped and caught the woman just before she hit the ground, the broken piece of his raft closed in his fist. His clones vanished at once, but the damage was already done. Everyone had witnessed what he had done.

"Are you ok?" he asked the woman.

She nodded her head, tears in her eyes from fear. "Yes."

He just saved her life.

"Treason!"

Naruto's heart started pounding at the man in the tower and his loud tone.

"Ninja! They're ninja! Treason!"

Naruto untied the woman and helped stand her up. "Hey! She was going to die if I didn't do anything."

"Ninja are forbidden on this land! How dare you!"

"Then I'll have a do-over. Come on, we'll race again and this time I won't do it. Fair, right?"

The man in the tower fled into the building. That wasn't a good sign. Another man appeared and took the woman with him. An even worse sign. Naruto tried to stop them from leaving but more men had shown up to block his path.

"Naruto, you idiot!" Shikamaru and Sai were soaking wet but on shore and coming at him, fast. Shikamaru made it there first and started scolding. "What have you done?"

"It was an accident. Sort of. I mean, I didn't mean to. Well, I did but... If I-"

The scarred man approached them next and pointed at Shikamaru. "You're the leader, right? Come here. Now!"

Shikamaru had to wait to yell at Naruto. Right now it was his turn. Trying to look as apologetic as possible, Shikamaru followed the man to the other side of the tower.

Naruto looked around at the lake. All the men who were there before were now gone. The water looked still and empty. Were the gators gone, too? The lake was empty and silent.

He knew he had messed up. Bad. Very bad. But if he hadn't done what he did, that woman would have been killed. He was certain he had done the right thing by saving a life. There was nothing else he could have done.

When Shikamaru returned, he looked like he had just been through hell. Upset didn't even begin to describe how he looked. He went to stand with the rest of the team when the man started speaking to them.

"Off the land."

"Come on," Naruto tried to reason with him. "If we could just-"

"No, it's over. You broke the rules. I broke the rules. Ninja aren't allowed to compete. Your cover is blown. Even worse, now we're not allowed to compete anymore because of this."

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I said. Those men no longer trust us to play by the rules so now we're not allowed to compete for them again. They are keeping the women indefinitely."

Those women were going to be kept? They weren't allowed to return to their village?

"That's not fair!" Naruto barked. "Now that they know we're ninja, let's just go over there and kick their asses and take those women back by force."

"We can't do that," said the man.

"Why not? These are the weirdest hostage people I have ever seen! What kind of kidnappers want people to play for the safe return of the people they've taken? It makes no sense." Naruto couldn't understand it. "Plus, why don't you want us to go after them and bring those women back? Don't bother with these stupid tasks they want you to do. You should have just hired us to go in and take them back! Why did we have to compete? We can just rescue them the way we know how and not do all this crap."

"We can't do that," the scarred man said. "And we can't let you do that either."

"And why not? You know we could."

"Because we agreed to their terms!"

Naruto stopped yelling. "Huh?"

The man sighed heavily. "When they came to the village, they asked us to bring forth all our women and we agreed. Then when they said they could have a competition so we could win them back, we agreed. We agreed to all their terms and rules."

"You agreed to let them do this?" Now Naruto was really confused. "But why?"

"It's a long story." The man went on. "But when we saw that no one could make it past the first two tasks, we knew we needed help so, going against their rules, I went out and hired you three ninja to compete in our stead. In doing so we violated the contract we had with them. We had hoped they wouldn't find out but when you did that..."

"Sorry. I just didn't want her to die. It looked like-"

"Enough," the man interrupted. "What's done is done. They've seen it, they know what went on, and now they've taken the women away. I had a bad feeling this would happen, but I was so desperate."

For a long time, he just stood there without a word. Then he paced the ground in small circles. Then he stopped and shook his head, looking at the sky. At last, he spoke to them again.

"Consider your mission a failure. Get off our land."

Naruto tried to get a second chance to save those women. "If we just go after them, we could-"

"I said no! Don't you understand? I agreed to their terms. Going after them is a mistake. There is nothing more you can do and nothing we want you to do. Now go home!"

"So you're just going to abandon those girls? You're an idiot!"

"Naruto!" Shikamaru snapped and he stopped yelling.

The man turned back to him, glaring. "Without rules, we are no more than beasts. One must not only abide by these rules but be truthful to them as well. Harbor nothing and be honest."

"Huh?" Naruto cocked his head.

"That is what the leader of that group told me when we had agreed to his terms and took the women away. Now I'm starting to see what he meant." He pointed. "Off our land. And don't you come back."

"But-"

Shikamaru held out his arm and stopped him. There was nothing more they could do. They were sent away. Their mission was a failure and their employer could no longer stand the sight of them. It was over. It was time to leave before they started something else.

As they left the village, carrying all their hidden ninja supplies and headbands, Naruto felt the need to say something. He couldn't leave things the way they were. He wanted to make things right.

"Even if the guy doesn't want us to, why don't we go find those women ourselves and rescue them? I don't see why-"

"This is all your fault, Naruto!" Shikamaru snapped, turning around. "Just shut up, will you? It's over. We failed. Because of you!"

"Me?! What did I do?"

Shikamaru held up his index finger and pointed it in Naruto's face. "One thing! I asked you to do one thing and you couldn't do it! Now look! What did I tell you? No Jutsu! And what did you do? You and your stupid Shadow Clones! You overuse that Jutsu so much it has become a habit! Even when we say not to use it, you used it anyway! You never listen!"

"Hey, I saved someone's life!" Naruto shouted back.

"Yeah, and condemned many others! Those women are never coming back. Naruto!"

"So you're saying I should have let one person die so we could get another chance to save others? At least we know they're alive. Isn't that better? I saved a life. If not for me, she would have been dead."

"And do you know what is going to happen to the other women they have?"

"No."

"Neither do I or anyone else. Since they're keeping them, it's possible that they are all going to be killed or who knows what else. Saving that one person's life wasn't worth what had happened!"

Naruto shoved Shikamaru, making him stumble. "That's why I say we go back there and save them, even if that scarred guy doesn't want us to!"

"We don't even know where they are, where they went, or where the women are or if there aren't any others in other locations."

"Shikamaru's right," Sai said calmly. "We were only hired to do one thing. Not to rescue anyone. We can't do what you're saying. That's not what we were hired to do."

"We can't just leave them!"

"And we wouldn't have to if you hadn't done what you did!" Shikamaru shouted. "It's your fault, Naruto! No one else used a Jutsu but you! This failed mission and whatever happens to those women are on you!"

"It's not my fault!"

"You did the Jutsu after we said not to!"

"I told you-"

"And now I'm telling you!" Shikamaru shouted over him. "I just got chewed out by that scarred guy and you don't want to know some of the things he said to me. Naruto, do you understand that what you do is a reflection of me?"

"How?"

"As team leader, I am responsible for whatever my teammates do. Everything that happened was put on me. He said some pretty hurtful things to me, Naruto, the least hurtful of which was telling me that I have no leadership skills and cannot control the people in my squad. I get the blame, do you get that? And what makes it even harder, is having someone not take responsibility for their own actions! You did the Jutsu! It's your fault! Own up to it!"

"I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Naruto, we are banned from returning to this village! He told me so before we left. We are never to return there again!"

"So what?" Naruto turned away, folding his arms. "I didn't do anything. It's not my fault."

Shikamaru looked like he was ready to punch him. Instead, he turned around and started marching.

The rest of the journey back to the Leaf Village was made in silence.

Well, now we know.

Thoughts?

Please review!